TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 623 



FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1. 



The following Papers and Reports were read : — 



1. Discussion, on the Place of Examinations in Education. 



(i) Examinations. By P. J. Hartog, M.A., B.Sc. 



' The public demands that persons on whose services it relies, but for whose 

 failures it cannot be compensated, as by a business man who fails to fulfil his 

 contract — that these should produce some certificate of competency based on an 

 examination, and often on a series of examinations beginning in childhood and 

 prolonged into early manhood and beyond.' This sentence, which I venture to 

 quote from a recent address of my own, 1 explains why the outcry against 

 examinations, both from men of sense and from sentimentalists, during the last 

 twenty-five years has proved, on the whole, futile. It is true that ' payment by 

 results ' has been abolished in the elementary schools, with consequences which, 

 to some independent thinkers in educational matters, are not altogether satisfac- 

 tory. 2 But in secondary schools and in universities examinations multiply in- 

 cessantly. ' One gets involved in the machinery and feels hopeless,' a young 

 university teacher wrote to me recently. The whole tendency is for higher 

 examinations to increase. Is it not, then, of the first importance that we 

 should ask what our present examinations do really test, what kind of examina- 

 tions should be utterly rejected and cast out, what are capable of improvement, 

 and how they may be improved ? The British Association has a great scientific 

 tradition. Might it not assist in applying scientific method to the examination of 

 examinations ? The suggestion which I made recently that the subject deserved 

 inquiry by a Royal Commission, aided by scientific assessors, has been supported 

 by Lord Cromer, by Professor John Adams, Principal Miers, Professor M. E. 

 Sadler, and Dr. Schuster, and by a large body of public opinion. My plea is 

 strengthened by the recent movement in favour of placing all patronage for 

 public appointments in the hands of the Civil Service Commissioners. 



I suggest that a British Association Committee should be appointed to sketch 

 out a plan of inquiry into the methods and efficiency for their purpose of public 

 examinations, with special reference to the influences of such examinations on 

 the previous education of the candidates. 



I would ask such a Committee, if appointed, specially to consider the follow- 

 ing propositions : — 



(a) That every examination ought to be regarded as a capacity-test, i.e., that 

 it should be so devised that one may be able to state clearly in words that a 

 person who has passed it can do such or such a thing [e.g., can write legibly, can 

 read clearly and intelligently, can add and multiply correctly, can understand the 

 non-technical portions of a French newspaper); 3 (0) that certain further portions 

 of the educational field should be as completely protected from the ordinary 

 examination tests as those concerned with moral training already are so protected. 



(ii) The Place of Examinations in Education. 

 By Miss S. A. Burstall, M.A. 



The subject of examinations has been dealt with by the Headmistresses' 

 Association since 1907. The sub-committee it appointed has been at work to 

 ascertain facts and to consider possible reforms. The Association feels strongly 

 the injury caused to girls' education, and in some cases to their future powers. 

 The following resolution was carried at the 1909 Conference : ' That this Con- 

 ference disapproves of external examinations for girls under sixteen years of age, 



1 Examinations in their Bearing on National Efficiency. London : Hugh Rees, 

 1911. 



2 Cf. Mr. D. C. Lathbury's article on ' Our Elementary Education — Are we on 

 the Right Road ?' in the National Review for March 1911. 



3 I should exclude from capacity-tests such tests as merely show the power of 

 repeating or writing out matters learnt by heart. 



