Examinations in Secondary Schools

Abstract

THE valuable Report published in 1911 of the Consultative Committee, of which the Right Hon. A, H. D. Acland was chairman, appointed by the Board of Education to consider the subject of examinations in secondary schools has borne tentative fruit in a series of regulations set forth in q circular of the Board, No. 996, dated May 25. This has now been given practical effect in the appointment of a Secondary-School Examinations Council, with the Rev. Wm. Temple, formerly headmaster of Repton School, as chairman (see p. 58). The council is comprised of representatives of the universities, of the Teachers' Registration Council, of the Association of Education Committees, of the various examination boards, and of the County Councils and Municipal Corporations Associations, but it contains no names directly representative of either boys' or girls' secondary schools, or of the Associations of Headmasters and Headmistresses concerned with them, or that of a single headmaster. This fact tends to deprive the Examinations Council of much weight, and of that direct personal association with the problems of secondary-school life which the occasion demands; and it would have been desirable also to include, especially in the present changed outlook and temper of employers, representatives of the great industrial organisations of the country. For some unexplained reasons the provision for nomination by a standing committee of professional bodies has been withdrawn after consultation with them.