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 20 Education for commerce
[pages 130 - 133. In the printed version this is Part III Chapter XIII]

To what extent the secondary school can and should give any special training to pupils destined to enter commerce is a question which has given rise to much discussion in the past. We have considered it again with considerable care in the light of the evidence which we have collected and with reference to the reorganisation of secondary education which we have suggested and the particular place which the secondary grammar school occupies in secondary education as a whole. Under the suggested reorganisation a pupil would find himself in the secondary grammar school because the kind of curriculum best suited to his needs would there be provided for him; the nature of that curriculum has been set out in chapter I of Part III [Chapter 8 in this online version].

The question may then be asked whether the pupil who has completed his course there has a place in commerce. He has followed the curriculum and received the education suited to him as an individual; has he also been educated in a manner compatible with entrance to a business life?

A great deal of our evidence encourages us to believe that business and commercial houses need the secondary grammar school pupil and would welcome him after full training according to the curriculum appropriate to that type of school. It is pointed out to us that the qualities of intellect and character desired in business life - power of ready comprehension, adaptability, judgement, initiative and the like - are qualities which are best fostered by a broad curriculum rather than by attention to special studies. Two further points are urged; first, that it is impossible to tell in advance exactly what may be the nature of the employment awaiting the grammar school pupil intending to enter commerce, and any satisfactory preparation except of a general kind is therefore impossible; secondly, that business experience cannot be anticipated at school; many of the operations involved in business training cannot be appreciated in the necessarily artificial surroundings of the school classroom, but only in actual business experience itself. Any attempt to forestall by special training the nature of the employment and the situations arising in that employment is in the interest neither of the pupil as an individual or as a potential recruit to commerce, nor of the commercial house itself which will eventually employ him.

At the same time our evidence rightly stresses that within a broad general education there are many subjects and many methods of treatment and that some of these are of greater relevance than others to the recruit to commerce. For example, a background of world geography, with more detailed study of countries of commercial importance, a knowledge of recent history with treatment of its economic and industrial aspects, mathematics which takes examples from real life and at the higher stages affords an introduction to statistical methods, a foundation of knowledge of a foreign language - all these form a valuable element in training for commerce. The most important of all is necessary for all pupils and no less for the recruit to commerce - it is 'good English', clear and correct expression, both oral and written, correct spelling and punctuation and legible handwriting; and our evidence leaves no doubt whatever that a sound standard of English is of greater importance than the rest.

These subjects, treated in the way indicated, fall within the traditional curriculum of the grammar school and, in so far as they are the right training for recruits to commerce, the grammar school can supply that training, provided that one condition is satisfied, namely, that the pupil remains at school till the end of the main school course.

To this condition we attach the utmost importance. If business employers and public and semi-public organisations attach value to the kind of training which the secondary grammar school can give to the right kind of pupil - and our evidence shows that they do attach value to it, and in our opinion rightly - then they must be prepared to allow the full time for the completion of the stage of grammar school education reached normally by the pupil at about 16 years of age. If they require any further training of a special vocational character - and we discuss such further training later - it must come after the normal grammar school course and must not form part of it. No criticism of the secondary grammar school can be valid unless the school is allowed to carry out its own task in its own way at least to the end of the main school course. We press on all concerned the importance of this point and its implications for the age of recruitment.

We may now ask whether the secondary grammar school can and should supply any form of specialised preparation for commerce, and we consider first training in typewriting and shorthand.

We have been at pains to gather skilled opinion on the teaching of these subjects. We are advised that both for typewriting and shorthand short intensive courses are found to be more effective than the same number of lessons spaced out over a longer period of time, that homogeneous and well-graded classes are desirable, and that successful training implies also skilled teaching, efficient equipment and ample space. The implications of this advice are clear; successful training implies, first, concentration of pupils in such numbers as will afford suitable grading of classes and justify special equipment and tuition, and, secondly, concentration of the course of study into a period of time devoted specially to it.

Following then the double line of argument - that the completion of the grammar school course is important to the pupils and to their careers, and that the best training in typewriting and shorthand is given intensively with appropriate facilities readily available - we arrive at the following conclusions, as far as secondary grammar school pupils are concerned:

(a) Training in typewriting and shorthand and office routine can usually best be given by a course in commercial schools or in commercial departments of technical colleges after the completion of the school course of the secondary grammar school. We look forward to the development of such classes as the right means of providing the skilled tuition and the intensive training appropriate to these subjects. We do not, however, exclude the provision of commercial classes in the sixth form of schools which are strong enough to provide the conditions and teaching skill necessary to a fully successful course.

(b) If the special facilities offered by a commercial or technical school are not available in a particular district, then a class in a secondary grammar school should be formed if there is a reasonable demand. It should be composed of pupils who have completed the course of the secondary grammar school or of the modern school; they should devote six months or so mainly to intensive training in the skills of typewriting and shorthand. For such a class special facilities as regards equipment and tuition would have to be made available. Such a class or classes would be most likely to meet a need in a district where there was only one secondary school, as, for example, in a country town lacking a technical or commercial school. Such a course taken in the secondary grammar school should not ultimately form any part of the examination taken about the age of 16+, the reason being that that examination would have been taken before a start was made upon the special training in typewriting and shorthand.

We pass now to a broader type of preparation for commercial occupation which begins after the completion of the main school course and requires in our opinion two years for its accomplishment.

Many schools have in the past provided a course which included such subjects as geography, modern languages, economics, history, public affairs and statistics as a preparation for posts in commerce and business of various kinds. Sometimes such courses have led up to university work in economics and allied subjects, pursued either at the university or externally. We believe that a valuable preparation can be given in this way provided that the course lasts for two years and is in the hands of fully qualified teachers, preferably equipped with some experience of business affairs. Not every secondary grammar school can provide teaching of this kind, nor would the number of pupils wishing to take such a course justify its provision.

To sum up, then, there should be available for the needs of commerce a great variety of sources of supply. At the age of sixteen candidates should be forthcoming from several streams ranging from the specialised secondary schools, through the wider but still practically based types of the modern schools to the products of the unspecialised curricula of the secondary grammar school. Beyond all these would extend two more years of part-time continued education, part of which should give opportunity for the acquisition of the specialised skills that are required in the particular business which is concerned. We believe that there are also a good many potential recruits of real ability for whom it is worth the while of the employer to wait until they have completed the full course of school education up to 18; we hold that courses designed to give a broad and intelligent apprehension of the conditions, both national and international, which govern commerce and industry in the modern world, can be given in various forms not only in the grammar school but also in the technical and modern schools, as they will come to be developed in the future. But, if education is to perform its task, it is essential that its fruit should not be picked before it has had time to ripen. Employers of all types, and especially the Civil Service of the future, should recognise the two main ages of recruitment for pupils leaving secondary grammar schools as coming at 16+ and at 18+; the task of preparation and of selection would then become for all concerned both simple and definite. We have only to add the observation that the schools will have performed their difficult task only if they can send out boys and girls of open and receptive mind who are conscious that they have but made a beginning and have much to learn, and who are ready to go on learning.