“GROWING WORSE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 537, 14 December 1928, Page 13

“GROWING WORSE”

matriculation conditions principals opinion the present system marking Th for the matriculation exa Inina---ier3 j unsatisfactory, is the opinion » bv Mis* K. M. Johnston, -.imistrc.'S of the Auckland Grammar School, in her report «nted at the annual j.rize-sivins that is not cheering is ! "°,m P that the school syllabus is likeiy to be dominati .1 by the de- - “ of the matriculation examinays Miss Johnston. “As more f tince candidates present tliemJ for this examination. matters kjJJ* worse of better from ',r to y eal, • . , , _» Th« present position is that the Lmty undetak.es tu mark in six weeks ! 4000 papers in subj cts such as 1 3 ii and arithmetic, and Miss Johna maintains it is impossible for any. • examiner to mark all the papej s many subject, which renders it -nilly impossible to maintain an objure standard. • Th e result is that, as tar as yyjpilt ‘the margin arc concerned, success ’failure is more the result of chance ' nart of the examiners. „ nf any considered judgment on fhough not in favour of a full sys- ‘ of accrediting for this examinaMiss Johnston assets that in the 0 f “marginal” candidates and in is where a pupil is ill on a day or 1 of the examination, the school 'ord might be taken into account. ‘ The University seems to be ob,«cd by a fear that a system of aciditins would lower the standard of examination,” concludes Miss iinston, "but in a great many cases passes pupils whom the schools ,uid unhesitatingly fail. At any a reform ot the present system long overdue. Many of the papers , set on obsolete lines, and put a tmium on the work of the ‘cram- ... they are marked, very often, by , /miners who have had no experiment teaching in secondary schools; ■?re is. in practice, no provision for ,j 19 reconsideration of certain ‘martial’ cases of failure, and no prbvi’,m whatever for the granting of ..crotat parsses—and these are only ...me of the indictments which may be ;:pught against the present system."