GENERAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS 323 
(s) It would be an advantage to Higher School Certificate work if General 
Science were taken up to School Certificate standard ; for examination 
requirements we find it easier'to take a special subject. 
(6) We consider that a General Science course is too disconnected and 
not a scientific training, and therefore not a good foundation for later work. 
(7) General Science course advantageous on the whole, but only in so 
far as it is amplified by more special work for two years below School 
Certificate standard if advanced work is aimed at after matriculation. 
These opinions, typical of many more, would seem to indicate that 
General Science is approved educationally but it is not the best possible 
preparation for the present matriculation or scholarship work. Dealing 
now with those schools whose General Science course comprises one to 
three years in the early part of the school life, it may be said at once that 
the general consensus of opinion is favourable. Very many schools mention 
that a knowledge of the elements of one science is essential to a proper 
understanding of the more advanced work in another science. Very few 
schools object to General Science in these early years, and of those that do, 
a number are largely concerned with the need for more specialised know- 
ledge necessary for examination in separate subjects later in the school 
course. 
Generally, then, it may be stated that most schools which have taken 
General Science find the subject of value educationally, and based most of 
their objections to it on the needs of matriculation and scholarship work. 
(In this analysis the opinions stated are those given to the questionnaire 
except where it was necessary to gather up, in a comprehensive sentence, 
the views previously stated.) 
IV. ExAMINATIONS. 
At present the regulations and schedules of the various School Certificate 
Examination Boards decide to a great extent the content of science teaching 
in schools. In some schools these schedules decide also the form in which 
the instruction is given, and control much of the laboratory work. 
A number of examining bodies include General Science as a subject for 
the First School Examination, but three of them at present consider General 
Science to be a course which includes only chemistry and physics. 
Several universities do not at present accept General Science as a 
qualifying subject for University matriculation. 
Much effort has been expended in late years in attempts to standardise 
more accurately the marking and grading of examinations. There is perhaps 
one danger here to which attention may be drawn. Certain types of 
questions are easy to set and easy to mark with precision. Unfortunately, 
facility in answering them can be acquired without any real knowledge of 
science or understanding of scientific method. This sort of question reacts 
injuriously on the teaching of science. The school teachers, who in recent 
years have been invited in increasing numbers to assist as examiners and 
critics of the papers, can help materially by combating questions of this 
type. The committee would welcome an extension of the system by which 
teachers are utilised as examiners or moderators. 
In 1932 a panel of investigators appointed by the Secondary Schools 
Examination Council issued a report on the School Certificate Examinations. 
The report was drawn up after an extensive investigation, and the panel 
was able, from its constitution, to obtain material which would be available 
to no other body. Included in the report of the panel of investigators is a 
recommendation that all candidates in science should be obliged to take 
a paper in ‘ Elementary Science’ (by which is meant a course similar to 
