Story: Primary and secondary education

Between 1913 and 1936 students who wanted to get further free secondary education (or who wanted to enter the public service) sat the public service entrance examination at the end of Year 10. This page of results for 1919 shows how some children from Timaru schools did in the exam. Subjects ranged from the traditionally academic such as English, arithmetic and French, to the vocational, such as dairy science, practical agriculture and book keeping. In 1936 all secondary education became free.