MANY CHANGES.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20496, 15 March 1932, Page 13

MANY CHANGES.

SECONDARY EDUCATION SYSTEM. ANNOUNCEMENT BY MINISTER. [THE PKESS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, March 14. Changes in tlie secondary education system, including the abandonment of the public service examination and the substitution of one of matriculation standard, but with a wider range of subjects, were announced by the Minister for Education, the Hon. E. Masters, to-day. The Minister said that tlfc Department for some time had had under consideration the desirability of making cortain changes in the examinations taken by pupils in the post-primary schools. At present pupils on completing their junior free place course were awarded senior free places if recommended by tlio principal of the school and approvod by the inspector. Should candidates fail to lie accredited, they must take the Department's examination for intermediate certificates, the holder of which was entitled to a senior free place. The Minister said he thought it desirable to test the operation of tho accrediting system just as had been done last year in the award of proficiency certificates and to require all candidates for senior free places to sit this year at the examination for intermediate certificates. This did not mean that tho accrediting system was to be entirely abandoned. He merely desired it to bo tested for tl»o pake both of tho pupils themselves and of the teachers, whoso standard of judgment might gradually vary from yeai to year, becoming either too high or too low. Public Service Examination. ' A further change would be the abandoning of the present public service entrance examination, a pass in which was no longer of high enough standard for entrance to the public service. For some time more than sufficient applicants had been offering with .a university matriculation pass. The Public Service Commissioner agreed that tho present public service entrance examination should bo discontinued and there should be substituted an examination of the standard required for university entrance, but with a wider range of subjects to meet tho requirements of different branches of the service and to fit in with technical school as well as with secondary school courses. Successful candidates at this examination would be arranged in order of merit and thus applicants for positions in tho public service or with private employers would have a definite standard of attainment to offer in support of their applications. The examination should bo particularly helpful to those employers who desired to givo preference to applicants with special qualifications which would be revealed by the subjects which tho applicant had passed in at the examination referred to. As the examination would generally be taken by pupils at the end or towards the end of their post-primary course pass, the certificate could be called, as in Great Britain, "the school certificate." It would correspond in standard to the present lower leaving certificate, which had proved of littlo service and which would therefore be abandoned. The present standard required for the higher leaving certificate would not bo affected, as a pass in either the University entrance examination or tho school certificate examination would be considered a sufficient prerequisite qualification. Certificate of Attainment. At present, a large number of pupils left the post-primary schools without any definite certificate of attainment. Under the new system, qualified pupils would receive an intermediate certificate usually at tlie end of their second year and the school certificate at the end of their secondary course. The subjects for tho school certificate examination would be chosen and tlie prescriptions so framed that the examination might be taken by technical school pupils as well as by secondary school pupils. This should have the effect of stimulating interest in technical school courses which, heretofore, had not in general enabled candidates to qualify for the lower or higher leaving certificates.