404 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— L. 



African society and a knowledge of the child's mental development — it must be made 

 from a sociological as "well as a psychological point of view. 



6. The sociological consideration demands that the pupU should foUow the bent of 

 his talents, should be fitted for the work in society which he can best do, i.e. for a 

 suitable profession. 



7. The psychological consideration demands that the school education should 

 adapt itself to the different stages of mental growth of»the pupil and should continue 

 till well after the commencement of adolescence. 



8. Hence we get : — (a) education up to the beginning of puberty : the primary 

 school ; (b) from early puberty to about the 17th year : the secondary school — from 

 which it follows that we should have secondary education for all. 



9. The core of secondary education must be the main interest of pupil, i.e. his 

 future profession. 



10. Therefore, different types of secondary schools to prepare for different types 

 of professions. Here the first examinations come in : test of the pupil's talent or 

 special ability. It is here where the psychologists can render a great service to 

 education, viz. by devising tests to show the aptitude of the different pupils for 

 suitable professions. At Stellenbosch University much useful work in this direction 

 has already been done. With the aid of such tests, combined with the opinion of the 

 parents and the primary teachers, it should be possible to avoid the many mistakes 

 of ' misfits ' and to put every chdd on the road towards his life's work. 



11. The secondary school will have to cater for pupils entering or preparing for all 

 sorts of professions which may be divided into three great classes : 



(a) Those demanding a high standard of theoretical knowledge and mental power 

 {e.g. the ' learned ' professions : law, medicine, theology, scientific research, &c.). 

 This class of profession cannot be entered by the pupil at the age of 13 or 14, but re- 

 quires a long and thorough theoretical preparation and clearly points the way to the 

 University. In this case the secondary school course would have to be a preparation 

 for the University, and the final school examination wiU be the entrance examination 

 of the University. This examination will have to test : (i) the knowledge and in- 

 telligence of the pupil : (ii) his capacity for scientific research ; (iii) his health ; 

 (iv) his character. The opinion of doctor and teacher (and other educators) will 

 suffice for Nos. (iii) and (iv), while a combination of the usual matriculation 

 examination and the mental (or intelligence) test will give fairly trustworthy results 

 for No. (i). For No. (ii) the pupil should be given a task entaiUng Research work with 

 sufficient time to do it in, or be allowed to present work of such a nature done 

 during the last year of his school course. 



(b) Professions requuing a great deal of theoretical knowledge as well as 

 practical skill {e.g. commerce, banking, accountancy, clerical, technical, dfec). Here 

 practical and theoretical work should go hand in hand, and the final examination 

 should consist of a practical as well as a theoretical part. Successful pupils should 

 then be considered as fuUy qualified for their profession. 



(c) Those which are eminently practical, which require no great preparation 

 beyond a certain period of apprenticeship, and which pupils of 13 or 14 can enter at 

 once either as apprentices or as qualified workers. The type of secondary school to 

 meet the needs of such pupils will be very much like our present continuation schools, 

 and will have to accommodate the bulk of our youth. The profession must be the 

 core round which the school education will have to group itself. From the profession 

 the school teaching must start to broaden the interests of the pupU, to show him his 

 relation to society, his value to the community, and his responsibilities as a member 

 of that community. Aim of this type of secondary school should be to make of the 

 worker an intelligent citizen, an educated man with broad interests, a liberally 

 educated human being. 



No final examination should be held here — a certificate from the principal that the 

 approved course had been absolved and a testimonial as to conduct should be 

 sufficient. The only examiner for this type of pupil and this kind of secondary school 

 is life itself. 



Followed by Discussion — Mr. Grant, Miss E. B. Conavay. 



Sir Richard Gregory. — Report on Science and the School Certificate 

 Examination. 



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