ON SCIENCE IN SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATIONS. 443 



Science in School Certificate Examinations.— ^e;)or« of Committee 

 (Sir Richard Gregory (Chairman), Mr. H. W. Cousins, Mr. G. D. 

 DuNKERLEY {Secretaries), Mr. D. Berridge, Mr. C. E. Browne, 

 Dr. Lilian Clarke, Mr. G'. F. Daniell, Mr. J. L. Holland, Mr. 

 0. J. R. HowARTH, Mr. J. Wickham Murray, Dr. T. P. Nunn, Mr. 

 E. R. Thomas, Miss Von Wyss, Mrs. Gordon Wilson), appointed to 

 enquire into the nature and scope of the science syllabuses prescribed or 

 accepted by examining authorities in England for the First and Second 

 School Certificate Examinations, and to make recommendations relating 

 to them ; particularly in regard to their relation to Matriculation and 

 other University Entrance Examinations and their suitability as 

 essential subjects of instruction in a rightly balanced scheme of education 

 designed to create an intelligent interest in the realm of nature and in 

 scientific aspects of everyday life. 



Introduction. 



The establishment of Scliool or Leaving Certificates upon an organised 

 and national basis was recommended by the Acland Report on Examina- 

 tions in Secondary Schools, published in 1912. Five years later, at the 

 suggestion of the Right Hon. H. A. L. Fisher, then Minister of Education, 

 the examining bodies of Universities appointed representatives to an 

 Examinations Council to consider and report upon (1) the Co-ordination 

 of School Examinations, (2) the Relationship between School Examinations 

 and University Entrance Examinations. 



The result was that in March, 1918, the Board of Education issued a 

 list of examinations recognised for the award of First and Second (or 

 School and Higher) Certificates. The examinations are now conducted by 

 eight approved Universities or other authority in England and Wales, 

 and candidates must select subjects from each of three or four groups, 

 one of which includes science. The First School Examination is taken at 

 about sixteen years of age, and is of the general standard of the Senior 

 Local Examinations of Oxford and Cambridge, or London Matriculation ; 

 the Second or Higher Examination is taken about two years later 

 and is roughly of the standard of an Intermediate Examination for 

 a degree. 



In instituting the First School Examination, the intention was that it 

 should represent the contents of a general education up to sixteen years 

 of age and should include English subjects, languages other than English, 

 mathematics and science, together with drawing, music, handwork and 

 related subjects. There was to be no specialisation up to this stage, 

 either on the literary or on the scientific side, and all pupils in secondary 

 schools were intended to be presented for the examination when they 

 reached the appropriate form in their schools. 



In the science group of subjects, however, little serious attempt has 

 been made to devise a course of instruction suitable for all pupils. There 

 are syllabuses of mechanics and hydrostatics, light and heat, electricity 

 and magnetism, chemistry, botany, natural hist^ory, and many other 



