THE EXAMINATION EVIL.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17581, 10 December 1928, Page 6

THE EXAMINATION EVIL.

The climax of the examination season of the current year for our younger generation has been reached. At numerous centres the matriculation examination of the University of New Zealand is being held. The sight of the legion of hopeful entrants to Hie halls of learning nervously awaiting the ordeal must (says the Otago Daily Times) remind older people of that dreaded period they once endured and remind them also of the pressing need of some mitigation of the examination evil. The discussion of the proposed new matriculation standard of the universities of England and Wales has included severe strictures of the existing examination system, and Germany is faced witli the serious problem of a large and increasing suicide rate in her schools as tile result, it is thought, of ihe intensive intellectual tests that are in vogue in that country. This alarming news from overseas need not unduly disturb our educational authorities, but the fact remains that new-comers to our academic life from abroad have not infrequently commented on the great stress that is placed on Ihe results of examinations in New Zealand and on their multiplicity, it is unnecessary to draw attention to the evils of the present examination system, which are apparent to all those who have passed through the mill of ttie educational machine, but the difficulty is to suggest any suitable and adequate reform. An interesting system, which has been thoroughly tested hv a fourteen years’ trial in the schools of Victoria, does, it appears, give considerable relief lo our youth in this respect. In his report to the University of Melbourne, the Director of Education, Mr M. P. Hansen, has fully discussed the dangers and difficulties of this new system in education. It consists briefly of allowing the headmasters of certain approved secondary schools to report on the work of pupils and to make these reports, with proper safeguards, the basis of promotion instead of external examinations. In its favour it is claimed that those best able to judge the student’s ability are the headmaster and teachers who have been in close association with the student's work throughout the year and have had every opportunity of estimating his mental development and observing any peculiarities in his temperament. Under the external examination system many a youtlr intellectually deserving of success in life has been robbed of his chance through being more highly strung Ilian one less gifted. The claim that.the system of accrediting would he abused by some schools granting certificates of educational fitness without proper discrimination has not in practice been substantiated. In Victoria only a few large schools with excellent teaching facilities and experienced instructors have been approved by the Educational Department’s inspectors, and the students who have matriculated from lit esc schools on the headmaster’s reports have compared very favourably willi those from noil-approved schools who have successfully negotiated Ihe .external examinations. The University of New Zealand has the matter under consideration at present, and there is little doubt that the system described would he found satisfactory it' this Dominion. Many parents would welcome this reform as the best available means of ensuring that the whole future of a child should not hang, as it frequently does, upon a few tense hours spent in an examination room.