32 PRESTDF.XTIAI. ADDRESS SKvTIOXD. 



that colony under its care. 'Jlie Transvaal University College has 

 never been like the ohJ woman who had so many children she 

 -didn't know what to do. Neither, indeed, has any of its sister 

 colleges. If, after the War, there had been started only one 

 Normal College in the Transvaal under the regis of the Transvaal 

 University College all the non-professional work could have been 

 taken in the ordinary Transvaal University College classes ; and 

 only professional subjects, such as singing and drawing, woidd 

 have been taken in the Normal College Department. The Principal 

 of the Normal College would then have been Professor of Educa- 

 tion in the Transvaal University College, an' mayhap Principal oi 

 that institution, for the majority of the students would have been 

 future teachers. This would not have meant that every student 

 proceeded to his degree, but it would have raised a healthy ambi- 

 tion in many to do so ; and it would have i)revented that cloistered 

 seclusion of the teacher, which is not the best j^reparation for a 

 calling, where one's if^sc dixit is accepted without challenge all 

 day kmg. 



But this refers not to a to-morrow, but to a to-morrow that 

 might have been. A different policy has been made permanent in 

 South Africa, in bricks and mortar and vested interests, to tiie 

 detriment, I think, of the teaching profession, and the University 

 Colleges themselves. 



The Education of a not too distant to-morrow will be recog- 

 nised a? an exact science. It has already begun to present its data 

 and conclusions in quantitative as well as in qualitative terms. 

 " The hope of the evolution of education lie< in exneriment." s''id 

 Profesor Adams at last year's meeting of the British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, which body, by the way, is giving 

 an increased attention year by year to educational questions. The 

 experimental psychologists have, during the last few years, been 

 elaborating " intellieence tests." and the researches of investi- 

 arator^ like Rinel. Pearson. Brown, SDcarman, Galton. Burt. 

 Winch. Ebbinghaus and Whipple, mav in time lead to the formu- 

 lation of an entirelv new kind of examination for entrance to the 

 Universities and the Government services. Professor Pyle, Uni- 

 versity of IMissouri. has recently concluded a series of tests for 

 mental efficiencv involving the use of such mental powers as 

 learning, logical memorv, rote memory, attention, association, 

 imagination and invention. A total mental efficiency mark is 

 given to each Dupil. according to the average of the results, 

 obtained in each of the tests, and this mark is regarded as .-i 

 reliable index of mental capacity. 



The average teacher in this country has neither the time, the 

 mathematical ability nor the training in scientific method ; a com- 

 bination of the three is required to conduct such tests. Ikit al 

 some future date mental tests zvill be applied to South African 

 children, and certain questions fraught with import suggest them- 

 selves. Is the quality or character of certain mental processes 

 different in South African children when compared with those of 



