ON THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY IN SCOTTISH SCHOOLS. €39 



DISCUSSION ON THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY 

 IN SCOTTISH SCHOOLS. 



Monday, September 10th. 



The Presidknt of the Geographical Section (Prof. J. L. Myres) introduced the 

 subject of the discussion by reading extracts from the Report of the Scottish members 

 of the Association's Committee on Geographical Teaching, presented to the Geo- 

 graphical Section at Leeds in September 1927, and communicated through the Council 

 of the Association to the Scottish Education Department. He also read the reply 

 of the Department, as follows : — 



Scottish Education Department, 

 14 Queen Street, 21lh August, 1928. 



Edinburgh. 



Leaving Certificates — History and Geography. 

 28/E. 5260. 

 Sm, 



Adverting to your letter of 5th June last, I am directed to state that the Report 

 of the Committee of the British Association on the teaching of Geography in the 

 Scottish schools has received most careful consideration. 



The Department fully realise the importance of the issues raised in the Report, 

 and they desire to assure the Committee that they do not in any way underrate the 

 value of the study of Geography. At the same time they have to take account of 

 the claims of the various subjects that compete for a place in a well-balanced secondary 

 course. The structure of the secondary school curriculum and the conditions governing 

 presentation for the Leaving Certificate examinations are under constant and vigilant 

 observation, and the Department are satisfied that there is no ground for the suggestion 

 that the study of Geography is relegated to a position of undeserved inferiority. 



In connection with the Report the Department would direct the attention of the 

 Committee to several particular points : — 



1. In their reference to the abolition of the Intermediate Certificate the Committee 

 have apparently failed to take account of the Day School Certificate (Higher), which 

 replaces the Intermediate Certificate and requires an equivalent standard of attain- 

 ment. All the three-j'ear Advanced Division Courses leading to the award of the new 

 Certificate must include Geography, and the number of candidates in the last session 

 for which statistics are available was about 5,200. If to this number be added the 

 number of candidates who are presented in Geography at the Leaving Certificate 

 Examination (at present about 200) the total compares on a population basis not un- 

 favourably with the 35,000 candidates in England and Wales referred to at the end 

 of the Committee's Report. 



2. It is not the case that Geography has been reduced to the equivalent of a half 

 subject as compared with Art, Music or Domestic Science. Art, Music and Domestic 

 Science do not rank as Higher Subjects for the minimum Leaving Certificate group, 

 whereas Geography in combination with another Science does. Under the old regula- 

 tions Geography on the Higher standard could be professed only as an additional 

 subject, but any approved combination of Geography and Science now ranks as a 

 Group II (Circular 62) subject, and may be professed either on the Lower or on the 

 Higher grade. 



3. The Committee are of opinion that the Lower standard may be reached after 

 three years' study. This opinion is hardly in accord with the general experience. 

 Candidates professing the Lower standard, equally with those presented on the 

 Higher, have usually followed a five or a six years' course. 



4. The Committee state that it is certain that the number of schools and candidates 

 offering Higher Geography has greatly declined in the last two years, i.e., in 1926 and 

 1927. This is true only of presentation in Geography as a separate subject and the 

 decrease is natural, as since 1924 Higher Geography could be offered only by the 

 rapidly decreasing number of pupils who had reached the stage of the Intermediate 

 Certificate in 1924 or earlier. The Committee are aware that the last candidates 

 under the old system were examined in 1927. On the other hand, there is a steady 

 increase, both at the Lower and at the Higher stage, in the number of schools and 

 candidates taldng Geography in combination with another branch of Science, and the 



