FREE PLACES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 241, 1 June 1932, Page 8

FREE PLACES

"retrograde step" EXAMINATION SYSTEM IS CRITICISED BY PRINCIPAL. "EXAMINATION MAD." "Although no oflicial announcement has been made since the statement . from the Minister, in which examinations for senior free place awards « were foreeast, arrangements for holding the examination are in train. (It seems, therefore, that the very retrograde step of designing the work of the school to meet examination requirements instead of making all examinations follow the work of the school is to be reinstituted." These remarks were contained in the report of the principal of the Wellington Technical College, Mr. R. G. Ridling, presented to the board of governors.

Standardisation Danger. ' The principal continued: "This brings a very great danger in that the work will tend to be standardised in all technical collsges and will also tend to be dissociated from industry. In the past very careful records of the pupils' work have been kept in all schools and an efficient system of fcesting the fitness of the pupils fo proceed to more advanced work has been in operation. The proposed examination will not assist in determining the fitness of pupils for senior free place awards, and may materially injure the untrammelled system which has enabled the technical high schools to be so closely associated with the facts of life." In Touch with Industry. Following the presentation of the report the principal said one of the things which had made technical work so iinportant was the freedom in the formation of the syllabus which was so desirable in order that colleges could keep in close touch with industry. Pupils in different subjects expressed themselves in different ways. A boy in engineering would 'express hhneslf better in drawings and workmanship than in written English, and the same applied to art pupils. If they had to sit down and do a written examination some of them would crash, as they would suffer a handicap on the marks in English, which were 500, against 200 for other subjects. If the examination was held, teaching would be on the lines of the syllabus laid down by the department, and if anything could be done to stop the examination it should be done. The pupils were tested by the principal each half-year, which was the best method of finding out if the pupils were fit to go on. The examination in the school followed the work- of the school, but an external examination would not do so. Since the Minister had decided on the examination, assistant masters had asked to be allowed to alter the courses. "Examination Mad." "I think this eountry has gone exmaination mad," said Mr. J. N. Wallace, who asked whether it would be wiser to "buck" against the department or to try and get the department to set an examination suited to the conditions of the college. He thought it would be better to figh for an examination set by the department which would suit their needs rather than for an internal examination to which the department was opposed. Mr. Ridling said he had suggested that the examination should be set by the teachers in the college and submitted for the approval of the department's inspectors. The teachers should mark the papers and send the results to the department. The department could standardise the results and get a eomparison with the work done in other schools. The department would not accept that. The reason given by the Minister was that the holding of the examination would test the accrediting system of the principals, but that would not be the case. The papers should be aecredited by the men who set them, but the teachers would be asked to accredit the department's examination papers and send the results to the department. Mr. Wallace said it was absurd to set the same examination for the pupils in a technical school as was set for the pupils in a secondary school. It was agreed that the chairman and principal should wait upon tha Minister of Education, the Hon. R. Masters, and discuss the whole subject with him.