ON THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY IN SCOTTISH SCHOOLS. 641 



Mr. John McFarlane, Reader in Geography, University of Aberdeen.— 

 ' I have been asked to open the discussion on this important subject by drawing 

 your attention to the Report presented by the Scottish members of the 

 Committee appointed by the Council of the Association to consider the teaching of 

 Geography in Scottish schools. This report was sent to the Scottish Education 

 Department in the latter part of last year, and less than a fortnight ago the General 

 Secretaries received a reply from the Department traversing some of the statements 

 made in the Report. Owing to the shortness of time at their disposal the Scottish 

 members of the committee had not been able to obtain all the information they 

 required to deal with this reply, but it is hoped that a brief examination of the two 

 documents, the Report and the reply made to it, will suffice to indicate the present 

 unsatisfactory position of Geography in Scottish education. 



' In summing up their conclusions the writers of the Report stated that, whereas 

 in England 35,000 candidates offer Geography as a subject for the school certificate, 

 less than 200 candidates in Scotland present it for the Leaving Certificate, and they 

 contend that Geography should hold a position in Scotland analogous to that which 

 it holds in England. The Departmental reply is that in Scotland all candidates for 

 the Day School Certificate (Higher), of whom there are over 5,000, must include 

 Geography in their curriculum, and that on the basis of population that number 

 compares not unfavourably with the 35,000 candidates from the English schools. 

 Now if the two certificates were approximately on the same standard it is obvious 

 that the Department would have a case, but all the evidence goes to show that they 

 are not. In the first place there is no guarantee that modern ideas regarding the 

 scope and content of Geography have penetrated into a number of the schools. Those 

 of us who have had anything to do with the preparation of a syllabus for the examina- 

 tions in Geography held by the various examining bodies in England know the almost 

 interminable discussions which take place before a draft scheme is finally adopted ; 

 for the Scottish Day Certificate the syllabus is drawn up by teachers often without 

 geographical training, and approved by a department often without expert advice. 

 We know that in some cases these schemes are thoroughly sound, but in others they 

 are of very doubtful educational value. Again the English certificate is based on a 

 four years' course, and the examination at the end of it, if passed on a sufficiently 

 high standard, qualifies for University matriculation. The Scottish Day School 

 Certificate is based on a three years' course, and the candidates are on the average 

 between one and two years younger. The Department itself considers this amount 

 of training inadequate for even the lower standard of the Leaving Certificate. We 

 are far from suggesting or even desirous that the burden of examinations should be 

 increased, but we feel bound to say that the examination for the Day School Certificate, 

 which is net conducted by the Department but by the local authorities, does not 

 necessarily show that Geography has been efficiently taught. We have heard of one 

 case, for example, where the geographical part of the examination consisted of one 

 question. " Through what waters would you pass in going from the Mediterranean 

 to the Black Sea ? " One other test may be applied to the quality of the work done 

 by those who do not continue the study of Geography during the whole of their 

 school career. My own experience and that of those who are associated with me in 

 teaching Geography in the Scottish Universities is that we are compelled to spend a 

 considerable amount of time to teaching parts of our subject which ought to have 

 been but have obviously not been taught in school. I know from fourteen years' 

 experience in an English university that the standard of the work done in the ordinary 

 Graduation Class is lower, and is necessarily lower, than it would be if the bulk of 

 one's class had already studied Geography up to the matriculation standard. 



' Taking all these facts into consideration, we retain our opinion that, in considering 

 the position of Scottish geography, the true basis of comparison is between the English 

 School Certificate, where well over 50 per cent, of the candidates offer Geography as 

 one of their subjects, and the Scottish Leaving Certificate, where the percentage of 

 candidates offering Geography is only about four, and our contention is that such a 

 state of affairs is thoroughly unsatisfactory. 



' Our belief that all is not well with the teaching of Geography in the first years of 

 the post-primary course is confirmed when we take into consideration the position 

 in the advanced classes. From figures supplied by the Department we learn " that 

 the number of schools conducted under the Secondary School (Scottish) regulations, 

 which have courses including five and four years of Geography study beyond the 

 primary stage, is 36 and 7 respectively. In addition there are 35 schools which 



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