USE AND ABUSE OF EXAMINATIONS. 
845 
It was felt that familiarity with the course of methods of study 
is as beneficial for the end in view as the independence and stimulating 
innovation likely to ensue from the introduction of an outsider.* * * § 
Examiners connected with an institution are more likely to find 
means of urging on tlie examinee to put forward what he should 
know, while men from outside are likely to stumble on matters the 
examinee does not know or should not be expected to know. 
On this point Mr. Lowe’s opinion was that teachers should not be 
left “ to brand their own herrings.” 
Doubtless this view of the dual control of the teacher is open to 
much consideration and argument ; but in Germany the view is not 
only favourably entertained, but the practice is followed. 
In the German high schools certificates are awarded by the rectors, 
after examinations conducted in the presence of a Government official 
by the rectors and their assistants.! 
This leaving certificate is the matriculation certificate which a 
pupil may present at the doors of any university within the German 
Empire and be admitted. There is, as a matter of fact, within the 
German Empire no matriculation examination as understood in these 
colonies and by many universities in Great Britain. It has not been 
hitherto contended that Germany is behind other countries as to 
higher education, or that this larger freedom accorded to German 
teachers has been abused. 
This application of a fundamental process of education to more 
advanced purposes brings examinations directly under public notice. 
Public examination has become a power behind the teacher almost 
indispensable to his efficiency, and thus is a potent factor in general 
education. It provides that element of drill, of trial, and of shock, 
such as in the general order of life is found at some stage in every 
department of practical affairs. This seems to me the most solid 
benefit ensuing from public examinations. The main drawback, how- 
ever, is that the best part of a teacher’s work escapes analysis; the 
methods of higher teaching rise in quality and character, while the 
methods of examinations lag behind. 
During the brief previous review, examinations have been re- 
garded as subsidiary to the purposes of education ; hut soon after the 
extension of the examination system with which we are all so familiar 
it soon became manifest that examination aimed at becoming the 
controller and mistress of education. + And such is actually the 
position of things to-day. During the last sixty years a complete 
revolution has overtaken the conditions of education. To pass 
examinations has become almost a profession^ There are many 
young people who, by passing examinations, begin to earn a partial 
* University of London Convocation Reports : 1877-1878, p. 47. 
f Latham, p. 04: “It is one of the drawbacks to the use of examinations m 
general that they tend to crush spontaneity both in teacher and pupil, and this 
tendency is far greater when the examination is supreme and external to the teachings 
than when the teaching and examining bodies are one, or when in some way each can 
influence the other. 7 * , , . , . , Q _„ 
+ This was felt nearly twenty years ago. Serious doubts were expressed m 18/0 
as to the superlative value of even the best examinations. It had been said in 1873 
that competitive examinations are destructive of all learning ; a charge repeated by Sir 
Geo. Young in 1884, and by Prof. Freeman in 1888. See Nineteenth Century , 
November, 1888, p. 019 : “A Protest.” 
§ Latham, p. 1. 
