144 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1917, 
tion to the Public Schools; the preponderance of scholarships, prizes, 
and other tokens of success given to boys who are specially proficient 
in classics; the existence of an exclusively classical ‘ atmosphere ’; 
the absence of efficient organisation to ensure the timely and regular 
promotion of boys who do well in science ; under-staffing of the science 
instruction and insufficient time-allowance for science subjects. 
The position in the State-aided schools is more satisfactory, but 
even here it may be reasonably contended that a more even distribution 
of headmasterships among teachers of different academic qualifications 
would not only help to improve the position and facilitate the progress 
of school science, but would also tend to remedy the ignorance and 
neglect of science which have prevailed so long in the nation at large. 
VIII. Inspection anD EXAMINATION. 
Certain broad distinctions may be distinguished between the func- 
tions of inspection and examination. Inspection tests school and 
class. It should guarantee that the curricula and syllabuses are suitable 
and that the teaching is efficient. Examinations test individuals. 
Inspection does not aim at testing individual pupils. During a visit an 
inspector may question pupils, inspect note-books, essays, &c. So 
far as the information thus obtained is used for sampling the class, the 
process is part of inspection; when judging the individual pupil, the 
inspector acts ag examiner. Conversely, the summarised results of 
examinations may be used to supplement inspection. Judgment of the 
teacher’s efficiency solely—or even mainly—from the results of a central 
examination is to be deprecated, since the influence of parentage, 
environment, and the conditions of work in and out of school are 
necessarily ignored. (In this report a central examination means one 
in which the same questions are set to a group of schools without regard 
to the varying syllabuses of instruction.) 
We have to apply the above general principles to the consideration 
of science teaching as part of the education of non-specialists. Inspec- 
tion should guarantee that the school provides, and that every pupil 
at the appropriate age pursues, a suitable course of instruction in science. 
While the examiner’s criticism should aim at improving the method 
and content of the teaching, the more personal aspects of efficiency are 
the concern of the headmaster and the inspector. It is obvious that 
genuine guarantees of efficiency can be given only by qualified inspectors 
and examiners, who should have had experience in teaching. 
With certain important exceptions, to which reference will be made 
later, the principal examining bodies have adopted in the past the 
method of central examinations. Whatever arguments may be urged 
in favour of this method for students aged eighteen or older who are 
entering upon a specialist training, the testimony as to its injurious 
influence on earlier teaching has been remarkable for a practical unani- 
mity sustained for several years. Evidence has been quoted to this 
effect in reports by investigating committees, notably by the Committee 
which reported at Dublin on the sequence of Science Studies in Secon- ° 
