438 iiEtORT — 1903. 



Result is to (1) confine teacher to old ruts and discourage all attempts 

 at improvement. 



(2) Cause the teacher to devote disproportionate amount of time to 

 written work. 



(3) Foster ' cram.' The teacher considers, not what is best for the 

 boys, but what the examiner will ask. 



Reforms suggested : (1) Examiners should be drawn only from 

 experienced and enlightened schoolmasters. 



(2) Examiner should report, not merely on attainments of boys, but on 

 curriculum, books, and school arrangements generally. Bad work is as 

 often due to bad arrangements as to bad teaching. 



Especially (3) examiner should spend several days at the school, 

 listening to teaching and, above all, coming into close contact with teachers, 

 so that he may know their aims and difficulties, and may give advice and 

 encouragement rather than criticism. 



(4) In the setting of papers the teacher should have a voice and a 

 right of veto on such as he may deem unsuitable. 



(5) Examiners should remain in office for several years, so as to 

 observe progress and become intimate with the teachers. 



Such reforms would, I believe, do much to free the teacher's hands. 

 He would be encouraged to try new methods, and would be able to give 

 practical effect to what is at present too often a mere theory, that a 

 schoolmaster's real work should be directed, not to immediate and often 

 superficial results, but to building up the character and training the 

 intellect for life. 



S 33. The effect on school curricula nil because it does not seem to be 

 the business of examiners to criticise the curriculum or the time-table. 



>S 11. Examinations should conform to the teaching. 



S 32. At present examination rules education. The learner is 

 spoon-fed, and everything is made easy for him in order to get marks. 



S 10. Examining bodies now more ready to take advice than they 

 were. 



S 19. In general the existence of and regard for outside examinations 

 is useful to the schools as promoting a breadth and balance of the curri- 

 cula. But the severity of examining bodies, etc., complicates and embar- 

 rasses school organisation. 



S 9. On the whole, examinations, such as those of the Joint Board, 

 are arranged on reasonable lines as far as curricula go. Perhaps required 

 as a stimulus to the British boy. Regrets the tendency to conduct all 

 examinations in writing, thus making exact but not ready men. 



S 22. On the whole the examinations set by the Universities do tend 

 to direct the teaching along reasonable lines. A notable exception is 

 afforded in the fact that they do not test a practical knowledge of modern 

 languages. Again, the retention of Greek as a necessary subject in the 

 entrance examinations to Oxford and Cambridge is an anachronism. I 

 am entirely in favour of the Bishop of Hereford's proposal. 



S 18. Approves of the Higher Certificate examination, and would 

 rather see Matriculation examinations on the same lines. The Victoria 

 and London examinations are presumably for boys of sixteen ; really they 

 are for boys of seventeen or eighteen. Matriculation examinations should 

 be general, not specialised, but with groups of subjects ; nor should undue 

 prominence be given to special subjects. The Oxford and Cambridge 

 Locals Preliminary is useless. 



