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 6 The reorganisation of examinations, continued
[pages 44 - 49. In the printed version this is Part II Chapter III]

Examination at 16+

In the suggestions of the previous chapter a reorganisation of examinations has been sketched which would allow a large variety of purposes to be served at the moment when it is fitting that they should become relevant, namely, just before entrance to further study or to higher posts in commerce or industry at the age of eighteen or so, and after a period of at least five or six terms of uninterrupted sixth form work. Having provided the means for the fulfilment of those purposes at the appropriate time, we now consider examination at an earlier stage in the school course.

Reform of the School Certificate

An ultimate objective

We propose in the sections which follow to set forth an ultimate objective; we realise that there are circumstances which make its immediate adoption inadvisable. Accordingly we go on to indicate the stages by which in our opinion movement towards this end should take place.

We believe that in the long run it is to the advantage of the secondary grammar school and the education which it offers that there should be a new conception of the function of examination at 16+, and a change in the nature of any School Certificate awarded at this stage. Examination plays a necessary part in the school economy; we need not go into the reasons for this. But it should be a subordinate part, and similarly in any certificate of performance the results of examination should be only one element in a comprehensive survey of the pupil's life at a secondary grammar school. If this is the right place of examinations in school economy and in a school certificate, we think that ideally the examination is best conducted by the teachers themselves as being those who should know their pupils' work and ought therefore to be those best able to form a judgement on it.

Looking at the matter from the side of the teachers, we think that an examination conducted at this stage by teachers themselves as part of a general assessment of their pupils would be in the interest of their freedom and lead readily to valuable experiment. With this development would come greater responsibility - responsibility for shaping the course of their work by learning how to appraise it rightly. On the basis of wider freedom and greater responsibility rests the increased status which in our opinion the teaching profession should in the future enjoy. Looking at the matter from the side of the pupils, we think that an education which is really child-centred can come about only if freedom is allowed to those who alone can make the individual child the centre of education, namely the teachers themselves.

These are ideals which in our view should be kept steadily in the forefront of educational movement in the years to come; for it will be increasingly difficult to reconcile an external examination at 16+ with the full realisation of the aims of the schools and with enjoyment of that freedom which will then be held to be a vital necessity.

Stages to its attainment

But, setting in front of us an objective to which we hope progress will be sure and steady, we recognise that sudden and immediate change is inadvisable. For we face here an issue which divides the teaching profession itself; some teachers welcome, some reject the idea of internal examination. The public too may not be fully prepared for immediate change, though we think that there is a considerable volume of opinion to which change would be acceptable. But it may be the part of wisdom to take one step at a time, provided always that the ultimate objective is kept steadily in view. Having set it before us, we now indicate the steps which lead to it.

The present School Certificate examination is concerned with a course of work which lies wholly within the scope of the schools. The end of the course at which the examination comes is normally reached by pupils of 16+, though by some the examination can be taken when they are 14+, by others it is taken when they are 17+. Only a small percentage of the candidates in this examination actually go to the university, which normally recruits at the age of 18+. The anomalies in this situation are obvious. In the first place the universities are strictly concerned only with that small minority of candidates which will go on to a university, yet they examine all. In the second place the universities examine that small minority two or three years before entrance to the university is normally to be expected. The direction therefore which change should take is sufficiently clear: it is towards placing the conduct of the examination in the hands of the teachers; they alone can best judge the needs of the mass of their pupils and they ought to be the best judges of the success or failure of the methods they employ.

Change in this direction is indicated by yet another consideration. If the present School Certificate examination is retained without alteration or prospect of alteration, it will mark off the secondary grammar school from other forms of secondary education. A system will then be established under which parity in secondary education will become impossible. For the objective of the School Certificate has become so associated in the public mind with secondary education that the establishment of the technical school and the modern school as forms of secondary education will be prejudiced from the outset. The alternative would be that all forms of secondary education should normally look towards the School Certificate examination - a hypothesis which is so out of relation to the needs of the technical school, where an internal examination, we understand, is working well, and so inimical to the character and future development of the modern school as to be unthinkable.

Accordingly we propose that for the present

(i) the School Certificate examination should continue to be carried out by the existing university examining bodies, and in each case should be conducted by a Standing Committee consisting of eight teachers, four members of local education authorities, four university members, and four of HM Inspectors acting as assessors. These Committees would report to the Secondary School Examinations Council and to the respective examining bodies.

(ii) all encouragement should be given to the schools to offer their own syllabuses and some of the prescribed syllabuses should be lightened.

(iii) the examination should become what is known as a 'subject examination', that is to say, an examination in which pupils would take whatever subjects they wished without restriction as to minimum number of subjects or 'groups' of subjects; that a certificate recording the performance of the pupil in each subject, expressed in grades - as, for example, excellent, good, satisfactory, weak - should be granted to each pupil, it being understood that 'good' is equal to the present credit standard. It is to be noted that this change could not be effected without two years' notice being given by the examining bodies.

We propose also that during the next few years investigation into the best methods of keeping school records should be set on foot. Though the beginnings of research into the question of school records have been made, much yet remains to be done. So important do we regard this matter that we make it a recommendation of this Report, that the Board of Education and local education authorities should consider measures for improving the method of keeping school records and for helping teachers by means of short courses, conferences and school visits to devote attention to their compilation. There should be special machinery at the Board of Education for collating the results of such enquiries as these and others and giving publicity to them. The task which will fall upon teachers is the task of discovering what are the necessary data for giving a judgement upon a child, and how such data are best obtained, recorded and used for the making of a full and trustworthy judgement. As long as reliance is placed on a written examination (both at the 11+ and the 16+ stages) the necessary incentive to teachers to improve their judgements is likely to be lacking. At the end of a very few years valuable experience will have been gained by teachers; they will have taught their classes with a differently framed examination in view and will have taken a greater share in its conduct. The country will be in a better position to judge the merits of a different conception of examination at the age of 16+.

A new form of certificate

The suggestions which we have made point to a new form of school certificate, falling into two parts. The first part would contain a record of the share which the pupil had taken in the general life of the school, games and societies and the like. It would, in short, give a reader some idea of the way in which he had used the opportunities offered to him by his education, using the term in its widest sense. The second part would contain the record of the pupils' achievement in the examination taken at the end of the main school course. During the interim period the record would state the pupil's performance in the examination conducted under the arrangements which we have indicated. When the examination had become internal, the record would relate to performance in an entirely internal examination. Such a certificate would give a summary of the pupil's career as known to his teachers and as appraised in a test; it would be a document which would give real information about his capacities and performance as shown in the whole field of his school career.

The career of a pupil in the secondary grammar school

On a previous page we sketched the course of a pupil through the main school and the sixth form of a Secondary School under present conditions. We may now sketch the career of another pupil under the proposals which we have made for a reordering of examinations.

At 11+ he would enter the secondary grammar school; he would enter the grammar school rather than any other type, first, because in the opinion of the teachers of his primary school, such opinions being supported or qualified by whatever tests might be thought desirable, the education offered by a grammar school would be most suitable for him; secondly, because his parents concurred in these recommendations and wished him to be so educated.

For the next two years his work would be kept under review by the master in charge of the lower school. If by the end of the two years it became clear that a different kind of secondary education suited him better, he would be transferred to a school which offered it. If he remained in the secondary grammar school, for the next three years (normally) he would pursue a course of study consisting of subjects chosen and treated with greater freedom than is possible at present. At 16+ (normally) he would take a school certificate examination, no particular subjects being required as obligatory. As a result of completing his course in the main school he would receive a certificate giving a record of his school career and a statement of his performance in examination. He would then leave or pass into the sixth form. Here the nature of his ability and his plans for a career would determine the path which he would take.

If he aimed at a college scholarship or a state scholarship, both of which would carry full maintenance, his course of work would be definite and clear; if he failed to obtain a college scholarship, he could later try for a state scholarship or an award by a local education authority in one and the same examination, his course of preparation being suitable for either. If he failed to obtain either and intended nevertheless to go to a university at his own expense, he would, if the examiners thought him worthy, be recommended for exemption or partial exemption from any further entrance examination. He would, however, be ill-advised to take this examination primarily with the aim of obtaining such exemption, for the nature of the papers and the standard required would reduce his chance of success.

If his aim were a professional career or entrance to a university or a college, his course of work would be equally definite; he would take, normally at 18+, the externally conducted school leaving examination in such subjects as were relevant to his needs, and in this way would gain exemption from preliminary examinations. If his aim were a business career entered upon at 18+, he would also take this examination, and receive a statement testifying to his success in his course of sixth form work. If he intended to enter the examination for the Executive class of the Civil Service or for the Service colleges, he would find himself able to work for the most part alongside his fellows who were preparing for the school leaving examination.

Though there would be three examinations - the college examination at universities, the examination for state scholarships and awards by local education authorities, and the school leaving examination - it is unlikely that a pupil would need to take more than two and many would take only one. If the schools are wise in their advice, the pupil really qualified to sit for a college scholarship would, if unsuccessful, stand a good chance of obtaining a state scholarship, or failing that, exemption from university entrance.

If the choice were between assistance to the university and entrance to the professions, he would need to take only two examinations, the state scholarship examination and the school leaving examination. (It is true that in present circumstances the competition for places in women's colleges at Oxford and Cambridge and London may make it imperative for girls to take the college examinations with a view to securing a place. There is no doubt that this competition leads to serious overstrain and difficulty in the girls' schools. It is a problem which can probably be fully solved only by the provision of more extended accommodation, but to some extent difficulties may be relieved by greater cooperation among the women's colleges themselves. We make no suggestions because we regard the solution of this problem as being outside our terms of reference. Nevertheless we state it because we have evidence from the schools that it is one which requires immediate consideration.)