ON ANIMAL BIOLOGY IN THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 427 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 



The Committee thanks the foreign State Departments of Education for valuable 

 help received in preparing and confirming the information concerning their several 

 countries. Its thanks are also due to the Secretaries of the various Examination 

 Boards in England and Wales for their help, and to the Librarian of the Board of 

 Education Library. 



SUMMARY. 



1 . Biology is taken to include a study of both animals and plants in their natural 

 surroundings and in the laboratory, and to cover an experimental study of function as 

 ■well as a study of form ; it is taken to include also reference to human physiology and 

 hygiene as well as to the geological history of organisms and to contacts with ordinary 

 human affairs. 



2. The Committee is strongly impressed with the high educational value of 

 Biological Studies at school age and believe them to take a place in general education 

 which nothing else can fill. 



3. A survey of the conditions in other countries indicates that Great Britain 

 occupies a curiously isolated position in regard to the position of Biology in the 

 school curriculum. In all the countries of Western Europe studied except our own 

 every boy and girl studies both animal and plant life to a substantial degree, including 

 human physiology and hygiene ; and the same is true of Japan . The Committee is 

 very strongly in sympathy with this practice. It notes also with much pleasure that 

 recent publications associated with the Board of Education urge the broadening of 

 the Science curriculum and give great prominence to Biology in this respect. It also 

 affirms its agreement with the statement in the Report of an Enquiry published by 

 the Board of Education and quoted on page 16 of the present Report, to the effect 

 that one of the difl&culties of the present position is ' the specialised character of the 

 degree courses pursued by the teachers at the L^ni versifies.' 



4. Biology and Zoology are still but little known as school subjects in England and 

 Wales. Botany does duty for all, and even Botany, though very general in Girls' 

 Schools, is practically confined to these. 



Statistics extending over the last ten years indicate however that the number of 

 candidates for the School Certificate and Matriculation Examinations in Biology in 

 England and Wales is gradually increasing, whilst there is a corresponding diminution 

 in the number of entrants for Botany, though that subject still accounts for 95 per 

 cent, of the candidates. For Higher Certificate the number of candidates for Biology 

 during the same period shows also a tendency to increase ; the percentage of candidates 

 for Zoology has increased appreciably, there being a corresponding diminution in the 

 candidates for Botany. Table XI of Appendix V should be considered in relation to 

 Table XIV of Appendix VI, which shows how, in the United States of America, 

 Biology, which was an almost negligible quantity in the schools prior to 1915, has 

 since that date largely replaced separate Botany and Zoology. 



5. Syllabuses in Biology, based upon a study of plants and animals, are provided 

 by all Examining Bodies for the Higher School Certificate, but no syllabus is provided 

 at the School Certificate stage by the University of Bristol, nor is it one of the ordinary 

 subjects of the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board or of the Oxford 

 Local Examinations. 



6. Attention is called to the recognition of the interrelations of subjects which is 

 shown in some of the Continental schemes, notably those of Austria and Saxony ; 

 some study of the solar system and of geology is, for example, often associated with 

 the study "of plant and animal Natural History, and in the Saxon Schools Chemistry 

 and Natural History are associated throughout as a single course. The Committee 

 would welcome a movement in the schools of England and Wales in this direction. 

 In this connection attention may also be called to the Hjemstedslaere of the 

 Scandinavian Primary Schools. 



7. A four-year scheme of biological study leading to School Certificate standard 

 is outlined and cross reference is made to work in Physics and Chemistry. 



8. The difficulty of obtaining suitable apparatus is not formidable and the expense 

 very low as compared with that associated with the Physical Sciences. The expensive 

 item is the microscope. For work up to School Certificate standard but little use of 

 this instrument is required, and a single microscope at a cost of £3 will go a long way. 

 For Higher Certificate work, when more expensive microscopes are required, very 

 satisfactory second-hand instruments may be obtained from reliable dealers. 



