THE POSITION OF GEOGRAPHY IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 375 



and every vai-iety of geographical education can be met with, for geo- 

 graphy is actually not taught in some schools, while in a very few cases 

 it may be looked upon as the central subject of the curriculum. 



Several members of the Committee have had considerable personal 

 experience in conducting examinations in geography for secondary school 

 pupils. The Geographical Association, founded by secondary school- 

 masters interested in the teaching of geography, has been good enough to 

 place at the Committee's disposal the correspondence which was received 

 in a recent enquiry made by them concerning geography in secondary 

 schools. Selections from this correspondence show what diiferent treat- 

 ment is meted out to geography in different schools. The brief and 

 pointed letter of one headmaster may be quoted here : ' Dear Sir, —We 

 have no army candidates and I have no interest in geography, yours truly, 

 ,' and contrasted with that of another master, who wrote : ' Person- 

 ally, I found all my teaching, historic, literary, &c., on geography, and 

 the results are most encouraging.' 



It is impossible, therefore, to form an accurate account of the position of 

 geography in secondary schools in England except by personal inspection. 

 In a few it is adequately recognised and admirably taught, in some it is 

 completely neglected, in the majority it is given to a master who has had 

 no training and often has no interest in the subject. 



As there is no authoritative body dealing with such schools in 

 England, the Geographical Association consider that the best way to 

 improve the position and teaching of geography in the existing conditions, 

 is to improve its position and quality in public examinations. Accordingly 

 a number of suggestions have been submitted to about three hundred 

 secondary schools for criticism, but only one-third have taken any notice 

 of them. (Appendix XXIIa.) 



These replies have furnished the basis of a series of recommendations 

 which have been sent to the examining bodies affecting secondary schools. 

 (Appendix XXIIb.) 



The examinations affecting secondary schools are those admitting to 

 the universities, the professional colleges, or different branches of the 

 national service — military, naval, civil — the University Local Examina- 

 tions and the Examinations of the College of Preceptors and the Society 

 of Arts. 



In some of the university and college entrance examinations geography 

 has a place in the examination paper in English, but in most cases it is a 

 very unimportant part of it. (See Appendix XXIII.) 



Geography has a prominent place in many of the examinations con- 

 ducted by the Civil Service Commissioners, but in some of the higher 

 examinations it should be awarded more marks ; for instance in the 

 Army Entrance examination, as is mentioned in the memorial of the 

 Geographical Association, which points out, however, that the style of 

 questions set in these examinations is improving. 



In the University Local Examinations ' geography is a subject both 

 for the Junior and the Senior Certificate, and there has recently been 

 established a more ambitious scheme for the higher certificate.' 



The Oxford and Cambridge Joint Board conducts the examinations of 

 schools such as the Public Schools and the Girls' High Schools. ' In the 

 Higher Certificate Examination, Geography only comes in as incidental 

 to the examination in History.' Physical Geography and Elementary 

 Geology forms, however, an optional subject in this examination. Geo- 



