262 



REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 

 Higher Certificate. 



4 The number of candidates, boys and girls together, presenting biological 

 subjects (Botany, Zoology, Biology, and the increasingly popular schemes of General 

 Science including Biology) expressed as a percentage of the total number of entrants 

 for all subjects has remained at about the same figure of 25 per cent, during the last 

 twelve years, the total entrants having risen from 33,563 in 1918 to 80,388 in 1929. 

 It would appear that the great majority of these biological candidates are girls. 



5 The Committee is not able to give figures indicating the number of boys taking 

 the biological subjects at the First School Certificate stage, but it is known to be an 

 almost negligible quantity. It would appear likely, however, from cases of schools 

 known to members of the Committee as introducing Biology now for the first time, 

 that a slow movement may be commencing towards its more liberal introduction into 

 the boys' schools. 



6. Recommendations. 



la) It was urged in the 1928 Report that Biology should be included as a funda- 

 mental subject in the curriculum of all schools. The Committee re-affirm this 



recommendation. . ■ t. j- i.- v, jj 



(b) The four School Certificate and Matriculation Examination Bodies which did 

 not provide syllabuses in Biology were invited in the 1928 Report to consider 

 the desirability of doing so. The subject now is recognised by all the 

 examination bodies at this stage, and a syllabus provided by all except the 

 Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board, which nevertheless 

 examines a few schools on their own syllabuses. At the Higher stage Durham 

 remains the only Examining Body which does not provide a syllabus. The 

 Committee invites the University to consider the provision of one. 



(c) Attention was called in the 1928 Report to the shortage, particularly among 

 men, of teachers with biological training. The Committee calls attention to 

 the fact that the position has not materially altered. , tt • 



td) It was submitted in the 1928 Report that there was need in the Universities 

 for the provision of schemes of study related more definitely to the needs of 

 science students intending to become teachers. It was suggested that there 

 should be a more general recognition of General schemes of study as alternative 

 to the present Special schemes as a path to a good degree. One way of meeting 

 the situation would be by the institution of General Honours as has already 

 been done by the Universities of London, Manchester, Leeds and Reading ; 

 another would be by instituting General and Special schemes in either of which 

 Honours would be awarded to the better candidates. Suggestions along some 

 such lines are, the Committee understands, the subject of discussion at present 

 at several of the other Universities. The provision of such courses as 

 alternative paths to a good degree would, the Committee feels, help most 

 materially towards the introduction of Biology into the Boys' Schools. 



7. Books suggested for School Libraries. 



The following are supplementary to the list given in the 1928 Report. It must 

 be clearly realised, however, that the list is a selection only and that, notoriously, the 

 same book does not appeal with equal force to difierent people. 



Atkinson, George Francis.—' First Studies of Plant Life.' Edited by E. M. Wood. 

 (Ginn. 4/6.) 



