346 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1912. 
APPENDIX. 
Report of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education on 
Examinations in Secondary Schools.* 
Since the Report of the Committee was presented last year the 
subject of Secondary School Examinations has been dealt with 
exhaustively in a Report of the Consultative Committee of the Board 
of Education (Cd. 6004, price 2s. 6d.). As the result of an elaborate 
inquiry into the origin, growth, development, and present position 
of external examinations in secondary schools in England, the general 
principles which should underlie any sound system of external 
examinations are laid down, and suggestions and recommendations 
are made for putting them into practice. It is unnecessary here to enter 
into the detail of the organisation proposed to remedy existing defects, 
but we may say that it involves the establishment of a system of 
external examinations held under a widely representative Examinations 
Council with executive powers. This Council would institute certifi- 
cates of three grades, the awards to be based not only on written 
work, but also on inspection, on consideration of the whole of the 
work done by the pupils, and on the marks given to that work by the 
teachers. The certificates would be as follows :— 
(1) A Secondary School Certificate representing a reasonable 
standard of attainment for a pupil of sixteen years of age, and to be 
open to candidates who have been in attendance for at least three years, 
after the age of twelve, in one or more approved secondary schools, and 
have reached a class in which the average age is sixteen. This certifi- 
cate would represent approximately the same standard as the present 
Matriculation Examination, and the written work for it would be the 
first external examination taken normally by a pupil in a secondary 
school. 
(2) A Secondary School Testamur for which no external examina- 
tion of any sort would be required. This testamur would be for 
pupils who leave before they are sixteen years of age, and would be 
based upon (a) success in the usual internal school examinations, 
(b) the school record. The standard of the testamur would be that 
which would be reached about a year earlier than the Secondary 
School Certificate Examination, 
(3) A Secondary School Higher Certificate suitable to the attain- 
ments of pupils of an average age of eighteen or nineteen years. In 
standard the examination for this certificate would be two years in 
advance of the Secondary School Certificate Examination, and be 
open only to candidates who had been in attendance at one or more 
recognised secondary schools for a period of not less than four years. 
It is assumed by the Consultative Committee that the majority of 
pupils who remain at secondary schools till what may roughly be 
called university age would most probably have passed the Secondary 
School Certificate Examination and have spent their subsequent years 
2 This Report was published after the foregoing conclusions had been 
drafted. It is significant that two independent inquiries should have led to 
-practically the same recommendations concerning Leaving Examinations. 
