The School Certificate Examination

Abstract

THE School Certificate Examination, its merits and demerits and how it might be improved: these are matters which so closely concern so many people—parents and employers as well as school and university teachers and administrators—that the National Union of Teachers has performed an important public service in printing and circulating Sir Philip Hartog's address at its Portsmouth Conference. Sir Philip, than whom a more competent critic could scarcely be found, exposes manifold weaknesses of the examination as at present administered. He discusses such questions as: What does passing the examination imply in terms of what each successful candidate will be able to do? What do the examiners suppose they are trying to test? What of the validity and consistency of the test? More than a quarter of the candidates fail: does this not point to serious maladjustment between education and examination? He makes five definite proposals for reform: (i) classify tests in such a way as to show employers in what cases they can rely on a pass as showing the possession of definite utilizable skills ; (ii) give to each candidate a certificate characterizing his or her performance in each subject ; (iii) abolish the group system in so far as it hampers the school in determining the examination programme to suit each child after investigation of individual aptitudes; (iv) supplement the school certificate by a cumulative school record ; (v) protect certain subjects, such as English literature, history and general science, from examination pressure, providing at the same time for their compulsory inclusion in the curriculum and school time-tables.