-8.~7a

22

The course for the B.Sc. degree corresponds closely in arrangement with that for the 8.A., except that the vicious principle of allowing the degree to be obtained without continuous study in any subject extending over three years is excluded, and that a working knowledge of a foreign language is required. The other alternatives, (a) and (b), are on the same lines as those for the 8.A., and open to the same criticism : (i) They are not themselves of equal extent, inasmuch as (a) contains eight units and (b) only seven ; (ii) they fall short of the requirements for similar degrees in Great Britain and Australia. We recommend that the nine-unit basis should be adopted as for the Arts degree, and that two Advanced courses should be obligatory. At the same time the B.Sc. degree examination suffers from a defect by which the B.A. examination is untouched. Being purely a written examination, it is unable to test adequately about half of the candidate's work, and that part which scientific opinion seems increasingly disposed to regard as the most important- — viz., the practical work in the laboratories. This defect can be removed only by giving the teacher, as we recommend elsewhere, an effective share in the examining of his own students, and by providing that a candidate's work in the laboratory throughout his whole course shall form an essential part of the examination. He unsatisfactory nature of the law examinations is set forth in the section on legal education in the University, in which the radically unsound condition of that branch is dealt with at some length. The examinations for the Medical and Engineering Schools are of a good standard, which has secured the recognition of the British Medical Council and the British Institute of Civil Engineers respectively, and given their graduates good professional status throughout the civilized world. In the Engineering School the papers are set and marked by external examiners in Great Britain. In the Medical School the teacher, together with an external examiner, sets and marks the papers of his own pupils. We recommend that this sound educational practice be introduced also into the examinations of the School of Engineering. UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN RELATION TO SECONDARY EDUCATION We are of opinion that universities have not sufficiently appreciated the fact that during the past thirty years a great change has been effected in the organization and method of secondary education. The work of secondary schools nowadays ought not to be concentrated almost entirely upon training pupils for admission to university courses, nor should the requirements of the university, some of which are merely survivals of tradition, condition the school courses arranged for the large majority of pupils who have 110 intention of becoming university students. How different the modern situation is from what it was even twenty-five years ago, may be illustrated from the example of New Zealand, which is in this regard typical of other countries. Before 1905 the number of pupils taking secondary courses was 5,200 for a population of 858,000; to-day, thanks to the liberal provision made for " free places," the number has increased to 19,800 out of a population of 1,316,000. Those who are responsible for secondary education will best secure a satisfactory result if they aim at providing a curriculum and an organization designed to give a broad general education, well balanced in its details, but not directed specially to qualifying for entrance to the university. 111 other words, secondary education should be regarded from the point of view of its own special problems, and not merely as a stage precedent to university training. Moreover, it is necessary in planning the education of certain groups of secondary-school pupils to provide for definite occupational needs, as, for example, the education of rural workers through well-developed courses in agriculture. Common courses in general education tend to divide off into specialized courses in the highest forms of the secondary school, and this is justified if the schools are to have that contact with life and reality which vitalizes teaching. Now, the fact is that in New Zealand the schools are, from a variety of causes, in the grip of the Matriculation Examination, for an ill-informed public opinion, nourished by the practice of external examinations in both university and schools, demands passes at this examination as an evidence of successful secondary educa-

►Science.

Law.

Medicine. Engineering.

Universities have not sufficiently appreciated the developments made in secondary education.

Secondary school curriculum should be adapted to school conditions.

Secondary education i domtoIted'by d Matriculation Examination.