September 20, 1917] 



NATURE 



45 



of the sea was remarkably calm at the time, and this 

 no doubt accounts for the brilliancy of the bows, which 

 are due to the reflected image of the sun. 



I wish to thank the readers of Nature who have 

 given explanations of the phenomenon, and to say that 

 these explanations have been much appreciated by my 

 brother officers and myself. Allan J. Low. 



September lo. 



The Convolvulus Hawk-Moth. 



An unusual number of the convolvulus hawk-moth 

 has been noticed in this neighbourhood during the last 

 month, and I venture to ask if a similar occurrence 

 has come to light in other localities. Ihe record, 

 which is by no means exhaustive, extends chiefly some 

 thirty miles along the coast, though some specimens 

 have been captured twenty miles inland. It would be 

 of interest to know whether this is an immigration 

 from overseas or whether any of your entomological | 

 readers can advance a reason for their appearance. ] 



C. E. RoBSoK. 



Hancock Museum, Barras Bridge, 



Newcastle-upon-Tyne, September 14. 



EXAMINATIONS IN SECONDARY 

 SCHOOLS. 



THE valuable Report published in 191 1 of the 

 Consultative Committee, of which the 

 Right Hon. A. H, D. Acland was chairman, 

 appointed by the Board of Education to con- 

 sider the subject of examinations in secondary 

 schools has borne tentative fruit in a series of 

 regulations set forth in a circular of the Board, 

 Xo. 996, dated May 25. This has now 

 been given practical effect in the appointment 

 of a Secondary-School Examinations Council, 

 with the Rev. Wm. Temple, formerly head- 

 master of Repton School, as chairman (see p. 58). 

 riie council is comprised of representatives of the 

 universities, of the Teachers' Registration 

 Council, of the Association of Education Com- 

 mittees, of the various examination boards, and 

 the County Councils and Municipal Corporations 

 -sociations, but it contains no names directly 

 t presentative of either boys' or girls' secondary 

 schools, or of the Associations of Headmasters and 

 I Tradmistresses concerned with them, or that of 

 single headmaster. This fact tends to deprive 

 r Examinations Council of much weight, and of 

 it direct personal association with the problems 

 secondary-school life which the occasion 

 Itmands; and it would have been desirable also 

 10 include, especially in the present changed 

 Mtlook and temper of employers, representatives 

 the great industrial organisations of the country. 

 ■ T some unexplained reasons the provision for 

 •mination by a standing committee of profes- 

 onal bodies has been withdrawn after consulta- 

 tion with them. 



It may be remembered that the report 

 of the Consultative Committee reviewed in 

 detail the origin and development of the multi- 

 plicity of external examinations of which the 

 secondary schools in England are the subject, 

 including the examinations of such bodies as 

 the College of Preceptors, the Oxford Delegacy, 

 NO. 2499, VOL. 100] 



the Cambridge Syndicate, the Public Services, 

 the London and Provincial Universities, and the 

 numerous professions which demand sf>ecial 

 entrance examinations. It discussed the evil 

 effects of all these diverse examinations on the 

 work and moral of the secondary schools, pre- 

 venting them from realising their true purpose, 

 and instituting aims other than those of the 

 efficient education and traininir of their pupils. 

 It showed how, for example, the universities and 

 the professions are to some extent defeating their 

 own ends by their demands uf>on the schools and 

 by their conflicting requirements, reducing the 

 time available for methodical instruction and 

 training, and leading to too early technical train- 

 ing, which lowers the value of the finished 

 product of the school as a whole. Striking 

 figures were given showing the number of pupils 

 who passed to the universities from 371 

 secondary schools the subject of full inspection 

 by the Board during the school years 1907-8 and 

 1908-9. Out of 14,789 pupils who left these 

 schools during those two years, only 400 went 

 to the universities, or 2-7 per cent. 



A full consideration of all aspects of the ques- 

 tion led the committee to the conclusion that, 

 whilst external examinations were necessary and 

 desirable in secondary schools, they must be 

 brought under better regulations, reduced very 

 largely in number, and intimately connected with 

 a well-considered and adaptable scheme of 

 inspection, so as to ensure a sound basis of 

 liberal education free from specialisation. The 

 report suggested that an examination should be 

 instituted for the award of a secondary-school 

 certificate, with due regard to the pupil's school 

 record, open to candidates who have reached a 

 class the average age of which is sixteen, and who 

 have been in attendance at a secondary school for 

 at least three years, and that the only other 

 external examination should be one suitable to 

 the attainments, general and special, of pupils of 

 an average age of eighteen or nineteen in respect 

 of whom a secondary-school higher certificate 

 would be awarded. 



These examinations, closely linked with inspec- 

 tion, it was suggested, should be organised by the 

 Board of Education acting through an Examina- 

 tions Council, which would include representatives 

 of the universities, the professions, the local author- 

 ities, the teachers in different types of schools, and 

 other persons with practical experience of indus- 

 trial and commercial life, as well as of the official 

 experience of the Board itself. It should be 

 entrusted with the necessary powers to carry out 

 the main principles laid down in the report. 



In the concluding sentence of the report 

 reference was made to the fact that seven years 

 previously to its issue in 191 1, namely, in 1904, 

 this subject of the examinations in secondary 

 schools had been referred to a like Consultative 

 Committee and recommendations made, the main 

 proposals of which were never embodied in prac- 

 tical action, and the committee plaintively urged 

 that it could not contemplate the recurrence 

 of such an unsatisfactory state of things, and 



