Wairarapa Daily Times [ESTABLISHED OVER 50 YEARS.] TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1926. SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 5 January 1926, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [ESTABLISHED OVER 50 YEARS.] TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1926. SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS.

Teachers differ widely among themselves on many questions rerating to their professions, but on one point they are unanimous. They agree that examinations are an unmitigated nuisance. They afford a very arbitrary and inadequate index of capacity. A nervous, highly-strung child may fail to do himself justice in an ordeal which another, inferior in mental calibre, but more self-possessed, may pass with flying colours. Examinations tend to promote cramming. They cramp the teacher’s style. With these hurdles to be negotiated, the temptation to concentrate upon preparation for them, to the neglect of a broader culture, i salmost irresistible, in fact, intellectually, the only case that can be made for examinations as a test of ability is that they bring - out the power of thinking rapidly under stress. All this may be readily conceded. The many imperfections of the examination system scarcely require demonstration. But wiiat can be pirt in its place There's the rub. Examinations are described as a “necessary evil,” although the expression is rather unfortunate, because no evil is necessary, and if a tiling is necessary it cannot be termed an evil. The teachers themselves would welcome Ilia abolition of examinations. Being in constant contact with their charges, they are clearly better judges of_ a child’s capacity than a person who has never seen him. But the demand for examinations comes from the public, which argues that, although examinations are a very rough and ready and capricious test, they are better thannone at all. They may not mean much, but they moan something. They represent mi achievement which, if its value is uncertain, is at any rate tangible. A headmistress may pronounce “Tommy .Tones’’ to be a lad of unexampled brilliance. The businessman who wishes to engage a clerk or an office boy accepts such testimony with some reserve, He prefers the cachet of an examination pass, which furnishes, for what it is worth, a criterion. Many

firms, wo believe, when engaging juniors make' it a practice only to employ youths who have obtained their intermediate or leaving certificates. The examination system may toe unsound in principle, tout apparently it suits the public, and what the public wants tiie public gets. Threatened institutions, like threatened men, live long, and though examinations may be condemned toy ‘ professional opinion, they-will'survive many a .substitute more satisfactory than any which lias been suggested hitherto is devised.