TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L, 705 
need not be large, but it should contain a certain number who have had actual 
experience in teaching in schools and in the training of teachers. It would con- 
sequently be necessary to abandon the plan of making the Committee consist 
only of Privy Councillors. Such a Committee would be invaluable to the Secre- 
tary of Scotland if he were to be bound to take upon him the duties of Minister 
of Education for Scotland. Such is the method adopted in all the countries 
where the education of the people has reached a high standard of excellence. 
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10. 
The following Report and Papers were read :— 
1. Report on the Overlapping between Secondary Education and that 
of Universities and other places of Higher Education.—See Reports, 
p. 338. 
bo 
A System of School Leaving-certificates ; with special reference to 
Scotland. By J. Srrona. 
A school leaving-certificate should be based upon the satisfactory completion 
of a school course; it should also function as a passport to further education. 
These presuppose a clear definition (1) of the whole field of education, and (2) of 
the links connecting the various elements in it. 
In general the primary school course does not end where the secondary 
begins. In consequence, while every facility should be provided for the trans- 
ference of the abler pupils at the proper time from one school to the other, the 
leaving-certificate of the primary school is not necessarily the link connecting 
the two, but rather the link connecting it to a trade school or a continuation 
school. 
It would be a gain to education if a permanent council, representing various 
educational interests, were created to consider and pronounce authoritatively 
upon courses of studies, and in particular devise a standard formula for a second- 
ary course. With a generally recognised norm or standard, secondary education 
would gain not only in definition and simplicity but in character. The 
application of certain generally accepted principles is required in the first 
instance ; experience would give the rest. Increase of individual differences with 
age means increase of specialisation as the school course advances. The danger 
of premature specialisation, and the possibility of late development of ‘bent,’ 
indicate the advisability of an intermediate period in the course, in which there 
should be modified or restricted specialisation. In any case there will be a con- 
stant process of adjustment. Some subjects should be compulsory, others 
optional. The principle may be enunciated that every secondary school course 
should provide in its compulsory part characteristic subjects drawn from both 
humanistic and mathematical or scientific studies. According to the optional 
subjects selected there would be various types of leaving-certificates. These 
would all guarantee the satisfactory completion of a course of secondary educa- 
tion which, in its compulsory part, provided the essentials of a sound secondary 
education. In particular a leaving-certificate, while giving the right of entry to 
a university, should give the right to enter upon a particular course of study 
there only in so far as it testified to fitness for such study. 
The entrance qualifications to the various professions and the grades and 
branches of public service could readily be correlated with the standard course. 
Business firms might define their requirements by some stage in the course. 
These principles and conclusions are in a measure exemplified in Scotland. 
Secondary education is assumed to begin about the age of eleven or twelve and 
extend over five or six years. There is an intermediate course of three years, 
followed by a post-intermediate or leaving-certificate course of two or three 
1912, ZZ 
