SCHOOL, CLASSIFICATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3777, 16 November 1907, Page 3

SCHOOL, CLASSIFICATION.

To the Editor. Sir, —I wish to air a grievance before the public, school committee, and Education Board, in order that the existing state of things in regard to classification of scholars, be put on a proper basis. In the middle of last year my daughter was a pupil in Standard VI., Campbell Street School, Palmerston North. Before removal to Foxton, she had been in the class mentioned for about ten months, and I am reliably informed was fit for promotion. She came to the Foxton School a month or so before the local examination, and gained a certificate of competency in Standard VI. When the present headmaster arrived he put her back into Standard V. On being asked for an explanation by my wife, the master said he had no Standard VI. in the school, but that he would give my daughter Standard VI. work. He, however, had only given her Standard V. work. He promised my wife that when the examination took place she would be examined in Standard VI. work, which has not been done, thereby wasting twelve months of her education. My object in keeping the girl at school the extra twelve months was that she might be enabled to secure a proficiency certificate. She is a delicate girl, and I was anxious to procure suitable work for her, which the proficiency certificate would enable me to do. Why were two other Standard VI. scholars in the same grade as my daughter, put up for examination and my girl omitted ? I now challenge Mr Adams to show what authority he placed my daughter in a standard lower than that for which she held a card of competency, dated September 13, 1906, and signed by Mr Geo. D. Braik, Chief Inspector, and which she had already passed ? I would like him to state, for the benefit of all parents whose children attend the local school, whether he ;has the power to present a pupil; for examination in a standard lower than one already passed ? I wpuld like to state also that the girl J has been so disheartened at being! put back, that she has paid little 01} no attention to her work because; the incentive had been killed. If|she had been given her proper work she would have worked a heart and gained her proficiency certificate. I intend to put the whole matter before the Education Board at its next meeting, and it is also my intention to take my five children from the local school and transfer them to Campbell Street School, Palmerston N.—l am, etc..

P.S. —I may state that I had a conversation with the two Inspectors, and they informed me that, had my girl been pointed out to them as having held a certificate of competency, they would have taken particular notice of her, but she was not mentioned until after the examination was over. But the fact of the girl being kept in the Ffth Standard made her lose all interest in her lessons, and no teacher could expect her to do justice to herself. R. G. Crichton, Purcell St., Foxton.