MATRICULATION AND SCHOOL LEAVING EXAMINATIONS

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21416, 7 March 1935, Page 9

MATRICULATION AND SCHOOL LEAVING EXAMINATIONS

! ' 1: or THE ,, S "T *' n ° lu<ve been published r t..,p * r; h ; r - u!; j t i r j n and school leav--S e.jnun;!:,.,.,- ;j)u j they contained -'Urprisf.s, the principal one " !e very hafd and apparently low marking of papers m English. i:,ij in connexion "fj,]. 1 leaving examination. fa' ,? a;i fciv'ij eul as an examination d ' (i ncl wimt to aim Ka\ v *!} as ,ii,; matriculation standard, hatlr* Js discovered that this examguonl must have been more difficult *Oan» f? e '{ ia^r ' cu lation one. as I hear both JL U P 1 v, entered and sat for jj3 th» matriculation and failed mi . Rd the leaving examination ®Ki »•» to the scholar that you endeavour k°w many were entered sfa- E2„ BCn °°l and how many failed? *2" enlighten the public as to •itttMw® .Position, and unless some tfcJS trf 1 , « made before nfext year, fer». J? «pe of the leaving examina•tiaaaj* , .J l3 ® discontinued and the ttjlrSpi*.- to concentrate on the [. A3 before. It carries at. ir r

more weight in the outside world and must be easier to pass now than the leaving examinations. The hundreds of boys and girls who sat and- failed in the latter examination have my sympathy, as I consider that they have had their fees taken and their "leg pulled" in return, as thc.v were given to understand that the leaving examination was easier than* the other.—Yours, etc., LOOKER ON. February 19, 1935. [Headmasters of Christchurch secondary schools, to whom this letter was referred, did not agree with "Looker On" that the school leaving certificate examination had been misrepresented to the scholar. There had never been any intention to have a lower standard of marking in the leaving examination. The answer to "Looker On's" statement that some pupils passed matriculation examination and failed in the leaving examination was in the system of marking. The Education Department required a pupil to score 40 per cent, of the total marks in each subject in the school leaving examination, while in matriculation the marks could fall as low as 30 per cent., provided the aggregate was 45 per cent. Dr. D. E. Hansen, principal of the Christchurch Technical College, said that, on the whole, the conditions for the school leaving examination were easier than the conditions for matriculation. In the leaving examination, English was a compulsory subject, and four other subjects had to be selected. Mathematics was divided into two sections, one being arithmetic and the other algebra and geometry. In the matriculation examination, the compulsory subjects were English, one foreign language and, for boys, mathematics, which comprised arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. It had certainly been difficult to score high marks in the English paper, which he had heard described as colourless. Mr G. J. Lancaster, headmaster of the Christchurch Boys' High School, said the range of marking in the English papers had, as in other years, been low and narrow. The numbers of the pupils from each school who entered for the leaving examination and the numbers who failed are not available.]