The abolition of the Proficiency examination: the effect in some Wellington city schools

Abstract

Primary education in New Zealand has had, for many years,to measure up to the requirements of an external examination. with the Standard Regulations of 1878, when the Primary School was organised into six standard classes and an infant department, each standard had to prepare for an annual examination conducted by the inspectors. This examination, which tested reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, dictation, grammar, composition, geography, history, and, from 1.885, drawing, was "to be so conducted as to enable the inspector to say of any individual pupil that he has rassed or that he has failed to pass a given standard." A. to J. 1879. Vol. II. H.2. P.12. In 1894 the examination of Standards I and II was left to the teacher, but in the other classes an annuel examination was conducted by the inspectors; on this depended the promotion of children from class to class.