PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION D. 2)7 



according to the number of their passes, as in the lists of success 

 ful jockeys which we read of in sporting newspapers. 



I he Report oi the Consultative Committee on Examinations 



' in Secondary Schools is an epoch-making document. Let us 

 hope that its recommendations will be adopted in this country, 

 and that a boy's school career will be gauged in future by intelli- 

 gent tests as well as by his reports all through his school career. 



If these reforms are carried out, a pupil will he examined 

 once at the age of 15 or [6, and once at the age of 17 or 18 

 Teacher- will be asked to suggest questions and limits for exami 

 nation — but not, I hope, to set the actual questions. A Board oi" 

 Examiners for each District, aided by a District Inspector of 

 high academic qualifications, who knows the schools of his district 

 intimately, and has helped with advice and sympathy in their 

 development, will set examination tests. Attached to each candi- 

 date's name will he his school record, his achievement in this oi 

 that branch of school life, his various masters' opinions of his 

 intellect and moral qualities — also, if need he, a list in order of 

 merit of the various candidates, as a check upon a chance ex- 

 amination result. A general certificate will he awarded, after ?. 

 short interview and a talk with each candidate, and distinction in 

 any subject can be notified on the certificate. The Inspectot 

 must see that this examination is taken, as it were, in the stride 

 of the school, and must sternly discourage all attempts at cram- 

 ming and extra coaching, which might impair health or intellect. 

 The scheme seems so reasonable and so feasible that surely the 

 Education Department and the University could arrange the 

 details before the end of 1913. 



As a natural consequence, also, the legislative assemblies of the 

 country become too stolid and practical. No Addisons, or 

 Morleys, or Bryces could rise in South Africa to high positions 

 in the State — the position of the savant in France and Germany 

 is not reproduced in this country. So Fencing Bills and Estate 

 Duty Acts go through the House with ease, but a Minister of 

 Education with half a million in his hand is not able to found 

 a National University as a brain centre to the land, and one of 

 its sole hopes of future salvation. 



Another disturbing feature of modern education is the desire 

 among politicians, and also, I regret to say, among many parents 

 to throw upon the schools the entire responsibility of the younger 

 generation. Although most pupils attend school for only five or 

 six hours out of the twenty-four, the school is gradually beinr 

 made responsible for every phase of their moral, intellectual, and 

 physical well-being. I will grant that character must be trained 

 that intellect must be stimulated, that physical culture must be 

 taught in those five or six hours, but the school is now expected 

 to take from the hands of parents and others responsible, phases 

 of development which do not rightly belong to the school. In 



