OVERLAPPING BETWEEN SECONDARY AND OTHER EDUCATION. 210 



much of a grievance. There is some complaint that, boys are kept at 

 school after they are ready for the university ; many public schools being 

 reluctant- to part with boys who are useful in their houses, or good at 

 games, until the latest possible time. 



Some hold that Classical Pass Mods., which involves perhaps as 

 many as 500 students at one time of the year, and about 250 at another 

 — that is, about 60 per cent, of the men reading for Final Schools in 

 Literce Humaniores, Law, and Modern History — is really school work, 

 and it is proposed that the remedy for this is a real Entrance examina- 

 tion. There might then be an Intermediate examination with various 

 options, introductory to the Final Honour Schools, but also forming 

 part of the course for a Pass Degree. 



On the other hand, the opinion has been expressed that Pass Mods, 

 is not a bad thing, for it teaches undergraduates to read a Latin or 

 Greek text thoroughly, and introduces them to Logic. Considerable 

 waste of time might be avoided by encouraging such men to begin their 

 Final Schools' work as soon as they come up and to carry it on simul- 

 taneously with their work for Pass Mods. 



Honour Classical Mods., which affects about 170 students each year, 

 is by some regarded as a mere duplication of Sixth Form work at 

 school; and it has been suggested that if students are not encouraged 

 to come to the university younger the better men should be allowed 

 to enter for Honour Mods, after six months. 



A good deal of the work for the Preliminary examinations in science 

 is stated to be really school work. The scholarship system, which 

 sends boys up with an insufficient knowledge of the elementary parts 

 of a good many subjects, is partly responsible for this and for some 

 of the other duplication. Thus, some students who are reading for 

 Final Honours are very imperfectly equipped in preliminary subjects : 

 e.g., mathematics for engineering students and German for science 

 students. 



Cambridge. 



Much that has been said concerning Oxford applies mutatis mutandis 

 to Cambridge. Here again it is stated that many boys are kept longer 

 at school than is to their advantage. Several correspondents state that 

 300 or 400 students attending lectures for the Previous examination are 

 doing work that should have been done at school. Little-go lectures are 

 regularly given at some colleges. The remedy proposed is to abolish 

 the Previous and to replace it by a real Entrance examination, or to 

 convert it into one. 



There is the same complaint, as at Oxford, concerning the effect 

 of Entrance Scholarships and the consequent omission of elementary 

 training which should have been supplied at school. For example, the 

 English of many science students is very defective. 



Neither from Oxford nor Cambridge is the opinion expressed that 

 matters would be improved by any alteration in the age limits for 

 Matriculation; and opinions are divided on the question whether boys 

 should be encouraged to come up younger than eighteen or nineteen. 



But at these universities the matter is, of course, in the hands of 

 the colleges. 



