630 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



part of the science teaching in the lower parts of the school. Elementary ideas of 

 astronomy, heat, and light are given to the boys by their form masters. The 

 experiment seems to have been a success as far as the boys are concerned, and it 

 has the added value of arousing interest in things scientific on the part of these 

 masters, who have so much influence over the lives of their pupils. 



The change from the formal and sectional teaching of science to the general 

 treatment of the subject is being impeded by examinations. These must, by their 

 nature, hinder any progress. Examining bodies say that it is their duty to examine 

 candidates in what they are being taught, not to influence the teaching. The 

 schedules they draw up tend to make the teaching stereotyped, and it is only in 

 the most independent of the schools, where examination results may be more or 

 less disregarded, that any substantial change can be initiated There happens 

 to be a striking example of the examination evil at the present moment. Nearly 

 three years ago the Association drew up a scheme of work called " Science for All," 

 which was intended to show the lines on which the teaching of general science 

 might run for boys below sixteen years of age. At the meeting much dissatisfaction 

 was expressed with the new regulations for the School Certificate Examination, in 

 which the Oxford and Cambridge Joint Examining Board appear to have ignored 

 the wishes of the Association in this matter. The papers in science are still, it 

 seems, to be restricted to physics, chemistry, and biology, in the old water-tight 

 compartments. A resolution was passed that the schedule should be broadened 

 by the inclusion of an alternative paper on general science. 



Far too long have schools suffered unheard under the imposition of examinations 

 by external examining bodies on which they are not represented. The universities 

 of Oxford and Cambridge especially are at fault in this matter. On the Joint 

 Matriculation Board for the northern universities, to give an example on the other 

 side, there is substantial representation of schoolmasters. This system should be 

 imitated for all examinations which affect schools. One looks with hope towards 

 the work of the Secondary Schools Examination Council, which has enlisted the 

 help of many schoolmasters in their investigations. 



Having passed the sixteen-year-old examination, a boy who remains at school 

 has the opportunity of following his own bent to a certain extent. The kind of 

 science teaching, for those who choose that subject, should now be more formal 

 and systematic than in the earlier, period. Here again examinations have a big 

 influence. The normal test for competence in this work should be the second 

 school examination. But the competition for university scholarships distorts the 

 normal course. As long as these scholarships are awarded for merit in one 

 subject alone — at some colleges they are granted for proficiency in a single branch 

 of science — there is a direct incentive to undue specialisation. Mr. F. S. Young, 

 Headmaster of Bishop's Stortford College, spoke of the necessity of restricting 

 specialisation in these examinations and of giving weight to general education. 

 The standards of the papers, he said, should be lowered ; candidates should be 

 required to offer one or more subjects subsidiary to their main ones, and should 

 produce evidence of a satisfactory general education before being allowed to 

 compete for the scholarships. At present the standards of many of the papers in 

 science set for scholarships at the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge are far too 

 high. The Association has repeatedly, but without avail, protested against this 

 unrestricted tendency to raise the standards in these examinations, and it is 

 urgently necessary to set up some machinery which will have a restraining 

 influence on the examiners. 



The foregoing is an old problem. The Rev. S. A. McDowall tackled a more 



