IV EXAMINATIONS 191 



curriculum, and is accordingly objectionable. The 

 competition for university entrance scholarships 

 amongst the large schools, and the glorification of the 

 school with the longest list of successes of this kind, 

 are bad. School education becomes, in consequence, 

 more and more confined to those subjects which lend 

 themselves readily to examination competition. Boys 

 are specialised in their studies too soon, and the 

 clever boys who have a chance of scholarships are 

 over- taught, whilst the stupid boys, who need more 

 teaching, are neglected. Besides this, the awarding 

 of these scholarships to rich and poor alike by open 

 competition simply increases the average expenditure 

 of the university undergraduate by 80 a year. 

 Those whose parents can pay for the best coaching, 

 that is to say, are richest, carry off these prizes from 

 the poorer competitors, and what should be (and in 

 some cases is) the means of supporting a youth at 

 college, becomes simply so much extra pocket-money. 

 I would award these scholarships, after careful inquiry, 

 to those who were really unable to exist at the uni- 

 versity without them. A special organisation would 

 be required for their administration, designed so as to 

 avoid jobbery and nepotism. The college which 

 awards the scholarship might require a legally certi- 

 fied statement of poverty from each candidate, and a 

 limited competition by examination, not in special 

 subjects, but in a wider range than is at present 

 usual, might then be applied. The stigma of poverty 

 thus attaching to the " scholar" would do no harm, 



o * 



but good. There is too little poverty and too much 



