In its report on “Examinations in Secondary Schools” the Secondary School Examinations Council, which was reconstituted in June 1946 and asked to advise the Minister of Education on the future of examinations in secondary schools, recommends the complete revision of the present examination system. It suggests that the School Certificate and Higher School Certificate examinations should be replaced in 1950 by a single external examination which would be open both to pupils over sixteen years of age on September 1 in any given year and to candidates over that age who are no longer in attendance at a secondary school. In reaching this conclusion the Council has been influenced by the consideration that an external examination is only profitable and proper for (a) those who wish to compete for scholarships or similar awards at universities or comparable establishments of further education, and (b) those who have followed courses substantially beyond the compulsory school age and who wish to establish competence in certain subjects in order to secure exemption from university or professional examinations. The Council proposes that papers in the new external examination should be set at three levels—ordinary, advanced and scholarship. The ordinary papers would be designed to provide a reasonable rtest in subjects which a student has taken as part of a wide general course to the age of sixteen, the advanced to test the ability of pupils in subjects which have been pursued for two years as specialist studies in a sixth form, and the scholarship to give specially gifted pupils an opportunity to show distinctive merit and promise. Successful candidates would receive a “General Certificate of Education” recording the subjects in which they had passed and the level at which they had been successful.