E.—7a

30

Recommendation for New Zealand.

The patli-of advance for New Zealand should, we consider, he the substitution for the Matriculation Examination of two school examinations taken at the school ages of about sixteen years and eighteen years respectively and held under the direction of a representative Secondary Schools Board appointed by the University. The examination and inspection methods of the Scottish Education Department should be adopted by co-operation with the New Zealand Education Department, through a numerically stronger staff of secondary inspectors than is at present employed. In this examination the record of the candidate as certified by his headmaster should be before the examiner. Both University and Education Department should insist that adequate time be given to the educational process, and that candidates should not be examined until they have successfully completed courses in the prescribed periods. We are of opinion that ten years of the operation of such a system of evaluating the work of secondary schools would produce a change of attitude towards examination and teaching in both teachers and public, and that it would be the best possible preparation for the introduction of an accrediting system. In support of our recommendations for the adoption of the Scottish system of examinations we cite the example of Harvard University, which in 1911 approved of an alternative method of testing entrance requirements in substitution for the usual type of examination in all subjects.* The plan is as follows : — Candidates for admission to Harvard College may apply for admission by the plan described above (the usual examinations in all subjects), or by the following alternative plan. This new plan does not take the place of the old plan ; it provides another method of admission for good scholars. To be admitted to Harvard College a candidate— (1.) Must present evidence of an approved school course satisfactorily completed ; and (2.) Must show in four examinations, as explained below, that his scholarship is of satisfactory quality. School Becord The candidate must present to the committee on admission evidence of his secondary-school work in the form of an official statement showing— (a.) The subjects studied by him and the ground covered : (b.) The amount of time devoted to each : (c.) The quality of his work in each subject. To be approved this statement must show - (a.) That the candidate's school course extended over four years . (b.) That his course has been concerned chiefly with languages, science, mathematics, and history, no one of which has been omitted. (c.) That two of the studies of his school programme have been pursued beyond their elementary stages —i.e., to the stage required by the present advanced examinations of Harvard College or the equivalent examinations of the College Entrance Examination Board. The Examinations. If the official detailed statement presented by the candidate shows that he has satisfactorily completed an approved secondary-school course, he may present himself for examination in four subjects, as follows : — (a.) English. (6.) Latin, or for candidates for the degree of 5.8., French or Germar. (c.) Mathematics, or physics, or chemistry. (d.) Any subject not already selected under (b) or (c) from the following list: Greek, history, chemistry, French, mathematics, physics, German These examinations must be taken at one time, either in June or in September. UNIVERSITY AND THE TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. In regard to the relation which should exist between the technical schools and the University, we desire to say that we have found the term " technical education " very loosely used in the Dominion. If the term is held to include artisan training in the various skilled trades, the preparation of stenographers and typists, the training of young girls in domestic duties and in home dressmaking, millinery, and the like, there can be little contact of such work with the University save in the training of some of the teachers employed. But there ought to be a definite field of teaching in the higher technical schools which approximates to, if it does not occasionally overlap, university teaching in the same subjects. In the teaching of engineering in a technical school, for example, mathematics, science, drawing, and

* "Trend of College Entrance Req uiiemen f-s," loc. cit.