450 REPORT — 1901. 



practically the wicket gate through which every student must enter the 

 University. The various colleges are free to admit students on their own 

 terms with or without examination, but as a matter of practice it is 

 usual for a college to require the passing of Kesponsions either before 

 commencement of residence or iii the course of the first term, so that for 

 actual influence on the ordinary curriculum of secondary schools we may 

 disregard all qualifying entrance examinations except this one. 



What, then, does the University in this examination require of a boy 

 fresh from school 1 



Turning to the examination statutes we find that every candidate 

 desiring to pass Responsions or its equivalent examination has to reach 

 the requisite standard of attainment in the following stated subjects, and 

 in these only : — Latin, Greek, Elementary Mathematics. 



So much for the subjects required. But a glance at the papers set will 

 show that as regards the literary portion of the examination the study 

 encouraged is almost exclusively grammatical and of a very rudimentary 



type. 



The writing of elementary Latin prose, the translation of passages 

 from one or two prepared books in each language, and the answering of 

 questions on elementary grammar form the staple of the examination. 



No knowledge is required of the art, or literature, or history, or general 

 life of Athens or Rome, and little or no inquiry seems to be made even 

 as to the authors or contents of the books specially prepared. 



The mathematical part of the examination is also open to criticism, 

 though perhaps in a less degree. 



But the really surprising thing is that natural science still meets with 

 no recognition, modern languages are ignored, and no questions are 

 asked even as to the candidate's knowledge or ignorance of our own 

 language and literature. Here, then, it must be admitted, is some room 

 for expansion. We are even tempted to pause and inquire whether we 

 have not stepped back into some earlier century ; and I venture to think 

 that it would be difficult to point to any single educational reform which 

 is more urgently needed or would be likely to produce a more wholesome 

 efifect on the teaching in our secondary schools than a reform of this 

 examination. 



In the first place if it were made permissible to offer certain equivalents 

 in place of Greek, this single modification would bring our universities 

 into touch with that large and increasing group of modern schools or 

 modern departments in schools which are now suffering from lack of this 

 connection. 



The existing requirement of Greek from every candidate, together with 

 the accompanying exclusion of modern languages and natural science from 

 this examination, practically dissociates this whole class of modern schools 

 or departments in schools from direct university influence, and the efl'ect 

 is found to be specially unfortunate in the modern departments of the 

 larger secondary schools. 



"whatever may be a boy's ultimate aim or profession or business in life, 

 if his intention is to pass through the university these conditions amount 

 to a warning that he had better avoid a modern school or modern depart- 

 ment. 



Consequently such schools or departments are very liable to become 

 the refuo-e of the dull or the idle or those who are preparing for nothing 

 in particular, so that standards of effort and attainment are inevitably 



