SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 182, 23 July 1908, Page 4

SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS.

THE AMENDED REGULATIONS. * At Tuesday's meeting of the Taranaki Education Board the Inspectors reported at length upon the amended regulations for the inspection and examination of schools. Summarising the report, Mr. Ballantyne, Chief Inspector, said that in the past it had been the custom of the inspectors to examine for certificates of competency and prodcioncy at the time of their annual visit. .The Department had now issued regulations making it imperative for the teacher to hold so many examinations, with a final examination at the end of the year, upon the results of which the promotions, from standard to standard would be based, all promotions to take effect from the beginning of the year. The issuing of the proficiency certificate's was still left in the hands of the inspectors. The Department was suggesting four methods by which the inspectors could arrive at their decisions. First, they could adopt the result, of the -teachers' examinations. This would not do, for it would mean that there would be no uniform standard, each teacher having a standard of his or her own. It would be unwise to entrust this examination to young, inexperienced, or uncertificated teachers. In his opinion, it would be unwise for the instructor to bo examiner in what was practically a scholarship examination. The second method was practically the old method of examination by the* inspectors at the i time of the annual visit. This would' ' suit those who did not wish to qualify for free tuition. The third method provides for holding examinations at convenient centres, the attendance to he optional, and therefore likely to be confined almost solely to those who wisli to gain free places at the secondary schools. The fourth method gave the inspectors the opportunity of accepting in whole or in part the results of any other suitable examination held by the Education Department as evidence of the pupil's fitness to receive a certificate of proficiency. For this purpose they would probably utilise the Department's examination for free places in secondary schools for those schools which were within a reasonable distance from the centres where these examinations were held. As for this year, the inspectors intended to examine the schools at the same time as they were examined last I year. v I

I It was decided to adopt Hie report and circulate copies amongst the Board's teachers.