Headmaster On Value Of School Certificate

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31081, 9 June 1966, Page 18

Headmaster On Value Of School Certificate

The value of the school certificate. depends upon the way in which it is interpreted by the community, Mr A. B. Ryan, the headmaster of Mairehau High School, told the school’s board of governors in a statement yesterday.

“It was originally designed as an examination at the end of a four-year course but it was also provided that a bright pupil might qualify after only three years’ study,” Mr Ryan said. “It was intended to Identify those pupils whose general intellectual ability was well above the average but who were not necessarily academic in their abilities or interests as were those preparing for university studies. The situation today is that the great majority of pupils who stay three years at school attempt the examination, and, regardless of their ability, hope to pass. “Candidates who fail to pass the school certificate but who secure a mark in excess of 50 in any one subject qualify for a certificate of education which shows all the subjects in which the candidate has secured 30 marks or more and, as with the school certificate the level of those passes. Such a certificate, if properly interpreted and established in the community could, I feel, meet most of the objections which are levelled at the present system,” he said. Limited Range “If the certificate of education were to.be accepted by the whole community at its face value, then in my opinion the need for single subject school certificate passes would largely disappear. The certificate of education would be a document showing ability over a limited range of subjects, the school certificate involving an aggregate requirement would indicate a more all-round competence. It would be up to the individual candidate, the parent, or the employer to work out whether a certificate of education showing perhaps three A passes was superior or inferior to a school certificate showing a C and three Ds. “The present system has been criticised in that it requires all subjects to be regarded as of equal difficulty and this has led to scaling of raw marks, a practice in which one cannot feel any degree of confidence. One might tend to assume that Latin was more difficult than Clothing, but the difficulty differ-

ential would be impossible to assess. Nor could we be sure that Clothing, which is a girls* subject, would always be of equal difficulty to Woodwork, which is a boys’ subject Again, I would assert that the value of any certificate depends upon the use to which it is being put An employer might prefer a boy with a certificate of education showing technical drawing at C level to a school certificate applicant with academic subjects to B level," Mr Ryan said. Overall Need “I believe the machinery of school certificate examination to be constantly in need Of overhaul, that standards should not vary from year to year in any one subject or from marker to marker in any one year, that over-speci-alised subject combinations might be avoided or additional subjects introduced. “The suggestion that there be examination papers at various levels, to cater for pupils of superior abilities, was discussed some two years ago at a conference of principals held in Wellington. The idea found little favour then and I am not aware of any major change of opinion since.

“It should be noted that it is not necessary for a pupil

to have passed the school certificate examination to be promoted to the 6th form and a pupil with good certificate of education passes in three subjects which are approved for University Entrance could well be expected to take up a new fourth subject and qualify for entrance by accreditation or by examination. No pupil, however, may qualify for the endorsed school certificate unless he has first passed the school certificate. I can see no reason why the certificate of education could not be similarly endorsed." Full Recognition

Mr Ryan said that he would like to see the general pattern of the examination remain subject to minor amendments where necessary. The leaving certificate should be made more informative and certificates of education should be given full recognition. “I believe that It should be the responsibility of the school to ensure that examination requirements of any kind do not dominate school programmes to the point where core or alternative liberal educational studies are neglected," Mr Eyan said. The board decided to forward Mr Ryan’s statement in full to the Education Department.