The Wanganui Chronicle. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1933. SCHOOL LEAVING CERTIFICATES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 301, 21 December 1933, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1933. SCHOOL LEAVING CERTIFICATES

’yHE broadening of the base in the teaching in the intermediate and the secondary schools, with a view to providing scholars with an education more in keeping with their probable future careers, brings forward the question of certification. At the present moment the secondary school curriculum suffers from lhe fact that the hall-mark of the scholars’ work is centred on the Matriculation examination. Were each of the high school pupils going forward to the universities, then all would be well; but the fact remains that an increasing number of school students will be moving into entirely different channels of education and employment. In these circumstances then, the dominance of the Matriculation examination is hardly desirable. The University Entrance examination is naturally narrower in its character than the curriculum of the high school of the modern type, and unless the greater is to be crammed into the less for examination purposes it is clear that a widening of the base of examination is to be desired. The Minister for Education, the Hon. Robert Masters, has decided that a School Leaving Certificate shall be granted to scholars who have attained to proficiency’in a range of subjects wider than the nineteen subjects which are the choice of the Matriculation student. For the purpose of School Leaving Certificate subjects of a more or less practical nature, such as technical drawing, economies, bookkeeping, shorthand and typing, needlework, housecraft, technical electricity, heat, engines, applied mechanics, plane trigonometry, physiology and hygiene, and general biology will be available to contribute to a pass. There is no intention of disturbing the University in the control of the entrance examination, and the School Leaving Certificate will not involve an extra examination; there will be only one examination and only one fee. Consequently a scholar may submit himself for both examinations concurrently. The non-Matriculation student will, when the new examination is initiated next year, be able to produce a certificate of his attainment, despite the fact that his school career has been planned, for other than University entrance. Thi» is all to the good, and will encourage the broadening of education by the teachers—for they will be able to point to certificated results—and it will place on the scholastic attainments of the pupils a hall-mark to which the pupil is entitled. In view of the intensity of competition among boys and girls leaving school for the positions that are available, it is to be hoped that a wide publicity will be accorded the innovation about to be introduced by the Minister «> Education, for the value of the School Leaving Certificate will in the end depend upon the appreciation of its worth by employers and the publie generally.