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Session 11. 1918. N X W ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: ANNUAL EXAMINATIONS. [In continuation of E.-8, 1917.]

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

No. 1. EXTRACT FROM THE FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION. Annual Examinations. The annual examinations were conducted by the Education Department as usual for the various purposes of Junior and Senior National Scholarships, junior and senior free places in secondary schools, district high schools, and technical schools, and teachers' certificates. Also, by arrangement with the Public Service Commissioner, examinations were held for admission to and promotion in the Public Service. The examinations were held from the 21st to the 30th November, 1917, and from the sth to the 19th January, 1918, at sixty-seven centres. The following table shows collectively, in comparison with the preceding year, the number who entered for the various examinations above enumerated, the number present, and the number of absentees :— 1916-17. 1917-18. Number who entered .. .. .. .. ..11,858 9,908 Number who actually sat for examination .. .. 10,894 8,829 Number of absentees .. .. .. .. • .. 964 1,079 Reference was made in a previous report to the duplication of examination by candidates for certificates of proficiency and for the special examination for junior free places. By abolishing the special examination the Department last year reduced the entries for the Junior National Scholarship examination to 3,122 (from 4,403 in 1916). Under special arrangement about 450 candidates for junior free places who would have been over fifteen years of age on the Ist December, 1917, and consequently could not gain free places under the regulations on a proficiency pass, were admitted and examined on the scholarship papers. They are included in the 3,122 above mentioned. Attention was also drawn last year to the large number of failures (2,815 out of the 4,403 examined in 1916) in the Junior National Scholarship and Junior Free Place Examinations. In spite of the cutting-out of the special junior free place examination in 1917, the number of failures—l,9l6 —was much too high, although the reduction in the percentage from 64 to 57 indicates that the free-place candidates were responsible for a higher proportion of the failures than were the scholarship candidates. In connection with the Junior National Scholarship Examination of November, 1918, the Department has endeavoured to prevent as far as possible the presentation of unprepared candidates, and the consequent heavy burden of work to the examiners and unnecessary expense to the country. Head teachers are being permitted to present, in general, not more than 10 per cent, of their Sixth Standard

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