Norwood (1943)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Contents, Introduction

Part I Secondary education
Chapter 1 Nature of secondary education
Chapter 2 Secondary education as it is
Chapter 3 Secondary education as it might be

Part II Examinations
Chapter 4 Existing examinations
Chapter 5 The reorganisation of examinations (i)
Chapter 6 The reorganisation of examinations (ii)
Chapter 7 The Inspectorate

Part III Curriculum
Chapter 8 The curriculum in general
Chapter 9 Physical education
Chapter 10 Religious education
Chapter 11 English
Chapter 12 History
Chapter 13 Geography
Chapter 14 Mathematics
Chapter 15 Natural science
Chapter 16 Modern languages
Chapter 17 Classics
Chapter 18 Art, music, handicrafts
Chapter 19 Domestic subjects
Chapter 20 Education for commerce
Chapter 21 Wales and the teaching of Welsh

Conclusions and recommendations
Appendix A Note on the Central Welsh Board
Appendix B List of witnesses
Index

Report of the Committee of the Secondary School Examinations Council appointed by the President of the Board of Education in 1941

London: HM Stationery Office 1943

Chapter 5 The reorganisation of examinations
[pages 35 - 44. In the printed version this is Part II Chapter II]

In our last chapter we reviewed examinations in the order in which they are encountered by the pupil in his progress up the school. In this chapter we propose to offer suggestions for reform of examinations; we propose, however, to reverse the order of treatment, dealing first with examinations at the sixth form and secondly at the fifth form stage. Our reasons are two: first, we wish to leave room for a break between school and university, and this necessarily affects the arrangement of sixth form examinations; secondly, the true function of the fifth form examination becomes evident if the purposes of the later examinations have first been clarified.

As has been said on an earlier page, it is possible that after the war boys and girls from secondary grammar schools will be required to undertake some form of public service. We know nothing of any plans; but we think that on educational and social grounds such service is desirable, and we assume that on those grounds it would last six months. The secondary grammar school would be affected in at least two ways. In the first place, since the university terms begin early in October and such service is best rendered in the summer months, it is clear that sixth form pupils must have taken all necessary examinations by March of their nineteenth year before leaving school. Unless, therefore, the date of the school year is altered, the sixth form course of 16 to 18+, now occupying six terms, would necessarily be reduced to five terms. On this arrangement the period now usual between entry for university scholarships in December or January and entry for a state scholarship in the following July would be halved. We think that from this reduction of the time between the two examinations great advantage would result both to the individual pupil and to the work of sixth forms. In the second place, the average leaving age of the secondary grammar school might rise. At present a certain number of pupils leave after a year or so in the sixth form, that is to say, at 17+. With a period of public service lying ahead of them, they might well think it better to remain at school for a few months more rather than to leave school and enter employment.

Sixth form pupils

In order to understand the problem fully it is necessary at this stage to give an account of the pupils to be found in sixth forms and the objectives which they set before themselves; the proposals which we make with regard to examinations will then be seen in relation to the needs which they are designed to meet.

To deal first with those pupils who will go to the university:

(a) There is the boy (or girl) of outstanding and exceptional intellectual ability and of scholarly mind, to whom work comes naturally and examinations do not come amiss; he takes both in his stride. On sheer intellectual merit alone, apart from any other consideration, he may justly win a place at the university.

(b) There is the boy (or girl) of good intellectual ability, alert and able and interested. His energies may spread over a wide field of work and games and general school life. For him a highly competitive examination, which offers no hardship to our first category, must necessarily involve a degree of hard and concentrated work which may in some cases lead to temporary overstrain, but in most or all must result in curtailment of interests and activities. Yet he will profit to the full from the university; he may be expected to gain at least a second class and will have made his contribution to the general life.

(c) There is the boy (or girl) who is not a natural student but is of reasonable intellectual capacity; interested in ideas, theoretical or practical, without being good at examinations; of strong personality and character, able to take the lead, and an asset to any common life. Such men or women a university cannot afford to be without.

Many boys and girls enter colleges and major institutions of further education, such as training colleges, domestic science colleges, physical training colleges and the like. Such institutions require evidence of fitness to enter upon the course which they offer.

Professional bodies recruit largely from sixth forms, taking pupils of 16 or 17 or 18 years of age. They too require evidence that an entrant has the general education, and the attainment in particular subjects, which are necessary to successful study of professional courses.

The Civil Service recruits boys and girls from sixth forms for admittance to the Executive Class, employing its own examination. The minimum age of a candidate is at present 17 years. The Service colleges also hold competitive examinations for boys of similar age.

Finally, many pupils leave after varying periods in the sixth form to take up work in business houses at home or abroad. In a few cases the possession of a Higher Certificate is an advantage to the applicant, but generally the School Certificate is all that is required.

It will be remembered that in the last categories there are boys and girls of high ability and character who, if they had wished, might have gone on to a university, but have elected to pursue a different course.

Such, briefly described, are the groups into which sixth form pupils may fall, as defined by their future career. Their needs must be met by a scheme of examinations which will be effective in realising their various purposes, but will at the same time cause least harm to individual pupils, and least dislocation of sixth form work. We therefore make the following proposals.

Entrance scholarships to universities

We do not all share the views of those who would abolish entrance scholarships awarded by colleges at Oxford and Cambridge and by universities. Competition for such scholarships need not be harmful either to individuals or to schools if it concerns only those who are of sufficient ability to engage in it. Harm results, it is admitted, if too many candidates are subjected to strain in order to win such a scholarship, because without it the opportunity to enter the university is denied. The best products of the schools can undertake such examinations without strain or harm, and we would leave such scholarships open for competition as representing the 'blue ribbon' of achievement. Nevertheless we make certain suggestions about the award of such scholarships; in doing so we are moved not by any wish to meddle with scholarship examinations, which are primarily the responsibility of the universities, but rather by concern for the welfare of the sixth form pupil of the secondary grammar school.

We are of opinion that:

(i) The winning of a college scholarship* at Oxford or Cambridge or a university scholarship elsewhere should in itself constitute a claim upon public funds for assistance towards the cost of living at the university, subject to evidence that such assistance is necessary. The cost of living should be so estimated as to cover all the expenses incidental to full participation in the many-sided life of the university. There should be no need for a successful candidate to search round for means of supplementing the college or university award. Such scholarships should be awarded, for three years and should be extended on sufficient cause being shown.

(ii) The election of a candidate to a college or university scholarship should in itself contribute evidence that he is a fit person to be matriculated.

(iii) The universities should make arrangements to hold their scholarships simultaneously in the same week in December. Only in this way, we believe, can the tour of colleges and universities by an unsuccessful candidate be ended; that it should be ended we believe most schoolmasters would agree. If it is objected that a candidate ought to have more than one chance, since illness may incapacitate him in a particular week, we would point to the examination in March which we discuss later.

(iv) It is to the interest of the universities and colleges that they should continue to have complete freedom to award in their own way the scholarships which have carried and should continue to carry the greatest distinction. At the same time it is desirable that there should be full cooperation between college or university examiners and those concerned with examination for state scholarships. In such cooperation we see the best means of ensuring that college and state scholarships are sufficiently in line to avoid imposing unnecessary burdens and complications upon the work of sixth forms. Though it may be difficult, there should be real and close contact between schools and college examiners, and we hope this will gradually develop through the representation of teachers on university examining bodies.

In the paragraphs which follow we recommend that the existing system of state scholarships and awards made by local education authorities should be revised.

Objections to the present system

The objections to the present system of aid to students going on to universities and colleges can be briefly set out. In the first place, the aid is inadequate both as regards the total sum made available and the sums generally made available to individuals. Secondly, the aid is unevenly distributed; in some areas it is easier than in others to obtain it, partly because competition is less keen, partly because aid is more generously provided, partly because the resources of the local education authorities are unequal. It is unevenly distributed also in the sense that it is often more readily available for students going on to universities than to other places of higher education. Thirdly, the aid is derived through many channels, university scholarships, awards made by local education authorities, state scholarships, private scholarship funds, school leaving exhibitions, with resulting uncertainty and scramble. Fourthly, aid is available on differing standards of performance; for example, whereas in one area it is granted to any applicant who holds the Higher Certificate, in another area competition is severe. Fifthly, it is usual for regard to be paid entirely, or almost entirely, to performance in a written examination, a test which, though of the highest importance, is felt in many quarters to be insufficient by itself.

In putting forward an alternative scheme we have taken into account two desires which have been strongly supported in the evidence submitted to us. On the one hand our witnesses desire that the state should be concerned in the award of aid to students, because, it is felt, the state alone is in a position to secure the evenness of standard which is essential to confidence in whatever plan is adopted, to bring about the conditions in which opportunity between areas may be as equal as can be, and to exercise a general control to see that new demands are met as they arise.

On the other hand they desire that local education authorities should be concerned in the award of aid to students, since it should then be possible for special circumstances to be taken into account with greater sympathy and justice than is possible in a scheme administered solely by the state. In this connection it is also pointed out that certain local education authorities take the greatest interest not only in making these awards but also in following up their students through their university courses.

Aims of the proposed scheme

In devising the scheme which we put forward we have aimed at securing the following advantages:

(a) cooperation of state and local education authority; in inviting this cooperation we wish to combine the advantages of central oversight and local knowledge of special circumstances.

(b) evenness of opportunity as between areas.

(c) maintenance of standards.

(d) freedom from arbitrarily imposed limits in making awards; the only limit which we envisage would be that imposed by dearth of sufficiently qualified candidates.

(e) selection by examination; opportunity is, however, left open for the making of awards to students who, though not in the highest rank intellectually as shown in written examination, yet are eminently fitted to go on to the university.

(f) use of existing machinery of examinations and of the accumulated experience of those hitherto concerned with them.

(g) possibility of awards to major institutions other than universities.

The scheme falls into two parts: the first relates to awards, made by normal methods and based on an annual examination, to students going on to universities: the second relates to awards made by local education authorities on special grounds to students going on to universities and major institutions other than the universities.

I. We propose that each year in March an examination shall be held in approved subjects and combinations of subjects. The examination would be conducted by university examining bodies and would take the form of 'scholarship papers', that is to say, papers free from prescribed books or detailed syllabuses of work. As a result of the examination university examining bodies would recommend certain candidates as showing promise of high achievement in a university course. The list of recommended candidates would be divided into two parts; part A would contain those of high intellectual distinction, that is to say, capable of obtaining a first class or a good second class; part B would contain those of good intellectual attainment whose claims might be considered if there were other outstanding merits disclosed by the school record but undiscoverable by written examination.

The recommendations would be made to the local education authority of the candidate, the name or names being forwarded at the same time to the Board of Education.

The recommendations would then be reviewed by boards appointed for the purpose; they would be composed, we suggest, of representatives of local authorities and universities and the teaching profession, and should be small. They would take into consideration all available evidence as to the fitness of the recommended candidates to derive full profit from a university education; such evidence would consist chiefly of a school record together with a report from the head of the school. The boards would also interview the candidates, using the evidence submitted to them as the basis of their questions; but for the present we attach more weight to the review of the school record than to the interview. Research is greatly needed into the methods of conducting interviews as well as into methods of preparing school records, and we suggest that use should be made of the experience which is accumulating at the present time as a result of the selection of candidates for commissions in the Services. As a result of this review and interview taken together a board might think fit to raise a particular candidate from part B of the list to part A, on the grounds that his intellectual attainments were sufficient to justify a university course while his merits on other grounds constituted a high claim to it.

A board would then send its list of recommendations to the Board of Education with such comments as might be thought desirable to explain any changes between the recommendations and the original list forwarded to the Board of Education by the university examining body. The Board of Education would then make the awards.

The scholarships would carry with them sufficient aid to cover such expenses as were necessary to enable the holder to pursue his course and to share to the full the general life of the university. They would be awarded for three years and would be extended on sufficient cause being shown. Special consideration will need to be given to the question of close scholarships and grants available under charitable trusts so as to prevent overlapping with state scholarships. Deduction would be made on grounds of parents' income, though the scales for estimating parental contributions will need revision in view of the heavy incidence of taxation.

The cost of these scholarships would be defrayed entirely by the state.

II. Apart from the state scholarships awarded as described above, it would be open to local education authorities to make additional awards of their own to suitable candidates. Some of these awards would be made on special grounds, as for example distinction or high promise in some direction not normally tested by university examining bodies. Such awards might be tenable at a university or at a major institution. A local authority would make such awards at its discretion and the state would pay half the cost.

The Board of Education would exercise such general oversight in such ways and at such stages as it considered desirable with a view to the maintenance of standards, the equality of awards and equity as between areas. For example, it would at its discretion call for scripts from time to time or ask for representation at interviews of candidates or for access to the records and reports taken into consideration in the making of recommendations.

We think it neither possible nor desirable to recommend the assignment of any quota of state scholars to particular universities. We recognise the attraction which Oxford and Cambridge exercise and its effect upon the newer universities. Yet we are anxious to preserve the freedom of universities to admit whom they will and the freedom of the individual to make application for entry where he wishes. Justice is best done to the university, college and individual by a plan which throws the duty of making application for a vacancy upon the holder of state scholarship or award and which limits the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in its intake of such applicants. How that limit is to be fixed is not for us to decide; but we hope that a satisfactory method can be devised.

Some local education authorities grant loans to students of merit who wish to go on to advanced education at a university or elsewhere. It has been represented to us that loans of this kind are much appreciated and that repayment is generally made quickly and without any sense of hardship. Many of us feel that, if a student is really of merit high enough to justify assistance, it should be given without the obligation of repayment, which in many cases is bound to be a burden in the first years of earning, and that encouragement should not be given to a young man or woman to borrow for any purpose. This is a question which local education authorities will decide for themselves; we would only say that the circumstances which justify loans seem to us to be exceptional.

A proposed 'school leaving examination' to be taken normally at 18+

We propose that twice each year an examination should be conducted by university examining bodies. The normal time for taking this examination would be in March; the date for taking a supplementary examination would probably be in July. It would be taken normally by pupils at the age of 18+ in order that they may

(i) give evidence of proficiency to pursue university or professional studies and may so satisfy university entrance requirements and may obtain exemption from preliminary examinations of professional bodies or satisfy the requirements of training colleges, or

(ii) show that they have pursued a course of sixth form work with profit.

The purpose of this examination would not be to provide evidence of a 'general' or 'all round' education. Such evidence is best furnished by the school record of the pupil, which under the proposals which we shall make would include a statement of the boy's career at school, the course of study which he had pursued and the general degree of success achieved at about the age of sixteen. We look to the examination at 18+, which we will for convenience call the 'school leaving examination', to provide such evidence to pursue a particular line of study as individual faculties of universities and particular professional bodies may see fit to require. The examination would be of a purely qualifying nature: no competition would be involved and therefore there would be no double purpose to be served. A pupil might take one or more subjects, as the faculty or professional body required for its own particular line of study. The subjects in which the examination could be taken would be limited in number, and the standard should be between the 'subsidiary' and 'principal subject' standards of the present Higher Certificate examination. We think that a prominent feature of this examination should be a paper containing a wide range of alternative questions, testing the use of English and bringing out the candidate's interests: we have in mind something of the kind required by the Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate. (2) It will be for universities and professional bodies to consider whether they will not make this paper a necessary requirement. We believe such a paper to be desirable and preferable to an essay.

The question of gaining exemption from the First MB [Bachelor of Medicine] examination is discussed in a later chapter on natural sciences. Here it is only necessary to say that we hope the medical schools will see fit to grant exemption from part of that examination if a candidate qualifies in chemistry, physics and biology in the 'school leaving examination'. Similarly we hope that, in the interest of the work of the schools,

(i) the Civil Service Commissioners would be willing to recruit for the Executive Class at a minimum age of eighteen and to bring their examination requirements as closely as possible into line with the examination which we propose,

(ii) the Service colleges, as for example Woolwich, Sandhurst and Cranwell, and those who conduct the examination for special entry into the Royal Navy, would, so far as is possible, order their entrance examinations as regards scope and standard of work in particular subjects on the same lines.

We do not suggest that either the Civil Service Commissioners or the colleges should use this examination; clearly that would be impossible, since entrance is competitive and the school leaving examination is qualifying. But it is of great importance to the schools that sixth forms should not have to be broken up into special groups pursuing different courses of work to satisfy different regulations, when in fact the differences may not be very great or vitally necessary. It would help the schools if the common elements in the appropriate courses leading to university entrance or the Civil Service examination or accountancy, for example, could be handled in the same group of pupils, even though there might be some difference in the number of subjects necessary: it is to the interest of the schools that as many purposes as may be shall be served by the same examination, or, when the same examination is impossible, by the same kind of teaching.

Finally, we see no reason why pupils intending to take up posts in industry or commerce should not take the school leaving examination in a limited number of subjects. Many of them will, in fact, pursue courses of study in conjunction with their occupation; some of them may take external degrees or seek the qualification of the various professional and technical associations, and exemption from university entrance examinations might be of value to them; but evidence that they had pursued a course of study of sixth form character would be of service to all.

The proposed examinations in relation to sixth form work

The proposals which we make for examinations in sixth forms offer two clearly defined paths, leading to the objectives of:

(i) competition for the highest awards carrying distinction and assistance;

(ii) satisfaction on a qualifying basis of the requirements of entry to further study and to particular careers. That these paths should be clearly defined we regard as essential; along each path there should be standards and methods and pace appropriate to those who tread it; the attempt to make one path lead to differing objectives can lead to nothing but confusion and must result in harm to very many sixth form pupils. We would urge that consideration of our proposals should start from their fundamental purpose, namely, to define objectives clearly and to adopt the most direct and simple method of achieving them with due regard to the needs of individuals, the quality of sixth form work and the interests of advanced study.

From the point of view of the schools we have been compelled to consider the question of university entrance, and we have made suggestions which may here be summarised and amplified.

(i) We have suggested that the award of a university scholarship or a college scholarship at Oxford or Cambridge should carry exemption or contribute to exemption from university entrance examinations. The same should hold good for winners of state scholarships.

(ii) We now suggest that unsuccessful candidates for state scholarships should, if their performance merits it, be awarded similar exemption in whole or in part on the recommendation of the university examining body. There is no contradiction between this suggestion and our previous contention that the examination should not serve two purposes. It is reasonable that a good candidate who fails to obtain a scholarship should be able to establish in the same examination his fitness for a university education; but the fact that this examination would be difficult and would be conducted on 'scholarship papers' should be enough to deter weaker candidates with no chance of a scholarship from using the examination as a method of qualifying for university entrance; for these the school leaving examination is the suitable method.

(iii) We have advocated the establishment of the school leaving examination as a means of qualifying, inter alia, for university entrance. It is right that it should be externally conducted because it must be available for all those who wish to enter universities, whether they come through the secondary grammar school, or through part-time education or technical colleges or business or adult education. It is not for us to attempt to say what should be required. We may hope, however, that the necessary conditions will not be too complicated and the number of subjects not too numerous: it is essential to good sixth form work that the whole of a pupil's time should not be given to examination requirements. We may add that any arrangements which will allow conditions satisfying one university to satisfy others would offer great relief to schools and pupils. Perhaps the time will come when the required evidence of general education can be furnished to the university by the school itself, so that examination for university entrance would be necessary only in the subjects of particular importance as the groundwork of the university course which the candidate proposed to study. But it is not within our competence to pursue this question further.

Footnotes

(1) In considering whether 'close' scholarships and exhibitions came within the scope of this paragraph, regard would have to be paid to the standard. It would be necessary to show that in standard they were equivalent to a state scholarship, that is to say, that the winners showed promise of a first or second class degree.

(2) The Regulations for the Higher Certificate examination state that the general paper will contain:
(i) Topics of a general and literary type for English composition;
(ii) Topics for English composition dealing with current affairs, practical problems, applications of science, or requiring a report on a meeting or discussion, etc;
(iii) One prose passage in each of the following languages for translation: Latin, French, German, Spanish.