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courses leading to the entrance test, and in several boys' schools many of the agricultural-course pupils are in the same position ; as a rule, however, these pupils do not remain at school long enough to reach the upper Fifth Forms. It follows, then, that the vast majority of candidates for the lower leaving-certificates are also candidates for the Entrance Examination in the same year. What, then, is the remedy ? Should a school leaving-certificate, entirely independent of the Entrance Examination, be instituted to be granted to pupils after completing a three, or possibly a four, years' satisfactory secondary-school course ? If such is instituted, how is the required qualifying standard to be determined ? The obvious alternatives are either by an additional external examination or by an internal examination and the Principal's recommendation. If the latter procedure were adopted the public estimate of the value of the certificate would no doubt be somewhat low for several years, but ultimately the certificate would almost certainly be accepted by employers as a reliable record of the pupil's attainments. The other alternative, an external examination, was recommended by Mr. Tate in his special report in 1925, in these words : " That a system of public examinations, covering different types of school courses of three years' and six years' duration respectively, be established by the University, to supersede the present Matriculation Examination. Alternatively, it is possible for the Education Department to develop and carry out a system of secondary-school examinations and for the University to recognize the certificates issued by the Department, or certain of them, for Matriculation purposes." This is practically the system that now obtains in England and Wales, in Scotland, in Canada, and in several of the Australian States. As a rule the candidate for the certificate has a wide but not unrestricted choice. The Northern Universities Joint Board in England, for example, sets papers in thirty-two subjects, including such as spinning and weaving, mechanical engineering, needlework, cookery, laundry-work, housewifery, and handicraft. Under all the English Examining Boards the candidate who desires to qualify for Matriculation on the results of his certificate examination must obtain " credit," a higher mark than the " pass " required for certificate purposes, in at least five recognized Matriculation subjects. None of the subjects named above, by the way, are recognized for Matriculation purposes. Certificate examinations have evidently in the countries named been established to serve two purposes —first to provide a satisfactory record of school attainment for those pupils, undoubtedly the great majority, who do not intend to enter a University on leaving school, and secondly to avoid inflicting two independent examinations of approximately the same standard, in some subjects at least, upon pupils at the close of their third or fourth school-year. This dual-purpose examination is that recommended by Mr. Tate,- and is undoubtedly preferable to a duplicated examination. On the face of it the system recommended should work well, and should effectually remove the overshadowing tyranny of the University Entrance Examination. In actual practice, however, the certificate examination has not accomplished all that it was expected to do. In England the Board of Education does not impose restrictions on the courses to be followed in secondary schools any more than the Department does in New Zealand, yet in both countries there is constant reference in the public press and at educational conferences to the shortcomings of the existing examination systems, their domination and restriction of the school curricula, and their fettering of the teachers' hands. A leading English educational journal stated quite recently that the controversy regarding examinations began in England with an article in a review in 1888, and it had been going on ever since. In connection with the certificate examinations it went on to state that " University bodies not only control the conditions of entrance to Universities, which of course they have a right to do, but for practical purposes they are controlling the whole conception of a general education, which they have no right to do." Apparently the dual-purpose examination has failed to solve the difficulty in England. lam confident, nevertheless, that the institution of a certificate examination in New Zealand has much to commend it, and steps to consider its practicability should be taken in the near future. The recent acceptance by the University Council of the principle of accrediting for the Entrance Examination will be welcomed by the great majority of educationists in New Zealand. A certain amount of opposition must be expected, especially as the system has by no means won general approval in countries where it has been in operation for several years past. Less opposition has, however, been directed against the principle of the system than against its method of application. In New Zealand it has been obvious for some years that the Entrance Examination has threatened to break down under the sheer weight of the number of candidates. Various proposals for reducing these numbers have been submitted from time to time, but the most effective will undoubtedly be that of a judicious selection of the best candidates by the Principals of the various schools and the submission of the remainder to the external test as heretofore. The application of the system will need to be very carefully devised, and there are undoubtedly minor problems of procedure to be solved. lam confident, however, that a satisfactory working basis will be arrived at and that the new system will be working smoothly in 1930. "We believe," states a Home publication, " that what is needed is a compromise between our rigid system and the rather easy-going reliance on school records that one finds in America." Adequate safeguards for effecting that compromise without lowering in any way the entrance standard must now be provided. As regards the internal development of our schools one is justified in stating that Principals and staffs are in the vase majority of cases willing and anxious to keep in touch with modern movements in education. Conservatism is apparent in a few of the large city schools, to whose credit, however, it must be conceded that they are doing exceptionally good work on their own chosen lines. The movement towards L ' enriched," or broader curricula continues slowly but steadily-; as yet there is no evidence of a desire to-indulge in a wild orgy of vocational courses. Outside the four centres there is practically no school which confines its energies' to teaching the old-fashioned academic or professional course, and even in the large city schools art, manual work, and commercial work, are taught to large numbers of pupils. The scarcity of suitable qualified teachers of some of the special subjects continues to be a real hindrance in some instances, and the lack of suitable accommodation and equipment has

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