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Norwood (1943) (page numbers in brackets) Notes on the text
Part I Secondary Education
Part II Examinations
Part III Curriculum
Summary of main recommendations (139-142)
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The Norwood Report (1943)
Curriculum and Examinations in Secondary Schools 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 [page 143] (i) The Welsh Intermediate Education Act of 1889, one of the Endowed Schools Acts, provided the machinery for establishing and maintaining a complete system of 'Intermediate and Technical Schools' throughout Wales and Monmouthshire. In many ways the framers of the Act were in advance of their time in contemplating new types of Secondary School curricula, which have actually developed here and there in both England and Wales only in more recent years; but in practice the new schools were of the Grammar School type, and in many cases existing Grammar Schools were absorbed into the system, which ultimately included 105 schools. (ii) Provision for the maintenance of the schools was made by creating for each County a Fund (governed by a Scheme made by the Charity Commissioners on the lines of Endowed Schools Acts and administered by a County Governing Body), consisting normally of: (a) existing educational endowments in the area;The Treasury grant depended, as do the grants of the present time, on the efficiency of the schools and compliance with the appropriate Regulations. There thus arose for the first time the need for some machinery to satisfy the Charity Commission and the Treasury that the new system was working properly and that the grants were justified. The Board of Education was not yet on the scene; and although three of the Welsh University Colleges were in existence, the University of Wales was not established as such until it received its first Charter in 1893. By that time most of the county schemes made under the Welsh Act were in their final stages, after three years of intensive effort by the 'Joint Education Committees' established for each county under the Act. During these years a number of national conferences of the County Committees were held, and in the course of these conferences the idea emerged of a special central body to continue the work of co-ordination and advice, as well as to undertake the examination and inspection of the Intermediate Schools. Some well-known people favoured giving these tasks to the Welsh University, which was much under discussion in the same period, but ultimately all the 'Joint Education Committees' combined to make the necessary applications for a Scheme setting up the Central Welsh Board, and after further discussions with the Charity Commission and the Treasury the Scheme was approved by Her Majesty in Council in 1896, by which time a large portion of the Intermediate Schools were settling down to work. The Board is thus not a University body. (iii) The Central Welsh Board itself consists of about 80 members, mainly representative, appointed by the Local Education Authorities for Higher Education (successors of the old County Governing Bodies), the University of Wales and Associations of Teachers, both Secondary and Elementary. It meets twice a year and functions through an Executive Committee. The chief officers of the Board are the Chief Inspector, who is also Chief Examining Officer, and three assistant Inspectors in addition to a Clerk who acts as Secretary and Accountant. The income of the Board is derived mainly from: (a) Statutory levies on the Welsh Local Education Authorities for Higher Education under Section 42 of the Education Act 1918 which took the place of the contributions previously laid down in the Welsh Act schemes. [page 144] (iv) Just as the Intermediate Schools developed on the lines of the older Grammar Schools, so in due course the examination system of the Central Welsh Board was forced by pressure of circumstances to model itself on that of the English Examining Bodies. Under Scheme the Board are empowered to examine schools other than Intermediate Schools. The Intermediate Schools, however, must be examined by the Central Welsh Board under the provisions of the Welsh Act schemes. The only examinations of the Central Welsh Board are now the School Certificate and Higher School Certificate Examinations. (v) The inspection arrangements of the Central Welsh Board extend only to the Intermediate Schools, the other Secondary Schools in Wales being inspected by the Board of Education. Since the Welsh Department was established in 1907, separate arrangements for the inspection of Intermediate Schools have hardly been necessary, and they are now in many ways undesirable. In practice it has been found necessary in recent years to make arrangements with the Central Welsh Board whereby the Board of Education Inspectors materially assist the Inspectors of the Central Welsh Board in conducting full inspections of Intermediate Schools, and in return Inspectors of the Central Welsh Board sometimes assist at the inspection of non-Intermediate Schools. (vi) Legally the Central Welsh Board is the Governing Body of an Endowed Foundation regulated by Scheme under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act, which is one of the Endowed Schools Acts. This Scheme and the Schemes regulating the County and County Borough Intermediate and Technical Education Funds are interdependent as regards finance, inspection and examination. The County and County Borough Schemes originally contained, and in the main still contain, provisions requiring external examination and inspection of the Intermediate Schools. The following clause is typical of many now in operation: 'Yearly Examination and Inspection of County Schools.These Schemes also lay down the annual contributions which the Council of the County, or County Borough, must make to the funds of the Central Welsh Board out of the income of the Intermediate and Technical Education Funds. The clauses in question have, however, been modified by Section 42 of the Education Act 1918, which provides as follows: Payments to the Central Welsh Board. '42-(1) For the yearly sum payable to the Central Welsh Board under the Scheme regulating the intermediate and technical education fund of any county, as defined by the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889 there shall be substituted: (a) a yearly sum equal to a percentage not exceeding twenty-two and a half per cent fixed from time to time at a uniform rate for [page 145] every county by the Central Welsh Board of the sum produced by a rate of one halfpenny in the pound for the preceding year, calculated in the manner provided by sub-section (3) of section eight of the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889; and(2) For the purpose of ascertaining the said net income there shall be deducted from the gross income all proper expenses and outgoings in respect of administration and management of the endowment (including charges for interest on and repayment of loans and replacement of capital), and any sums required by the scheme to be treated as capital, and the term "endowment" shall include augmentations acquired by the investment of surplus income whether derived from endowment or county rate, or from any other source, but not property occupied for the purposes of the scheme. (3) The power of charging capitation fees for scholars offered for examination conferred on the Central Welsh Board by the scheme of the thirteenth day of May, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, regulating the Central Welsh Intermediate Education Fund shall cease. (4) The provision of this section shall have effect and be construed as part of the schemes regulating the Central Welsh Intermediate Education Fund and the Intermediate and Technical Education funds of counties in Wales and Monmouthshire, and may be repealed or altered by future schemes accordingly. They have been further modified by Section 82 (2) of the Local Government Act 1929, under which the 22½ per cent of one halfpenny rate is now related to a standard year, so as to protect the Central Welsh Board against any decrease of income which would otherwise have resulted from "de-rating".' Under the terms of the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889, the Board of Education has to report annually to Parliament that, upon consideration of the Central Welsh Board reports on the result of their inspection and examination, the Board of Education are satisfied that the conditions required to be fulfilled by a school in order to obtain grant under the Welsh Act have been fulfilled by all the schools eligible to receive the grant. 
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