THE EDUCATIONAL REORM IN ENGLAND.

Evening Star, Issue 3660, 14 November 1874, Page 3

THE EDUCATIONAL REORM IN ENGLAND.

{From the Melbourne Aye.) The London ‘ Times,’ of the very day on which the last mail left England. contained the first published result of the new Oxford and Cambridge School Examinations. These examinations have just been introduced with a view to test the. standard attained by the . different schools throughout the United Kingdom, The board of examiners is appointed by the two Universities, and its business is to examine all those schools which profess to prepare their pupils for the Universities, and to publish the results. Up to the present time the method of examination pursued has been admittedly faulty, and no means have been afforded to the British public of deciding which of the modern schools was the most successful in training boys for the course of study which the Universities—the admitted courts of appeal in educational matters—should mark out as the best. The great public schools attracted youths, not so much from their intrinsic merits, as from the supposed respectability imparted by the r/enius loci. Innumerable “ chapels,” Latin verse which would have sent a Bom an poetaster of the silver age into hysterics, slang which has left its mark on the English language of all time, such were some of the precious fruits of these romantic but somewhat costly monastic seminaries. Then came a few schools like M arlborough and Cheltenham, which knew of French, had heard of German, and even ventured to dally with a little science of a later date than Galileo and Copernicus,

Besides these, there were the countless grammar schools, the useful but unpretending pariahs of English education, which’ never rose into prominence excepting by some exceptional circumstance. as by the personal popularity of some master. But now, at one fell swoop, everything is changed. There can bo no manner of doubt in the mind of every British parent who reads the. newspaper as to which school has tire highest standard, and the stimulus thus given to teaching is immense. The results must have come vary unexpectedly on the British public in different ways. For, first and foremost of the list comes tiie very oldest of the English public schools, the old time-honored Winchester, whoso hoys, in the time of William c;f Wykeham, “drank of the crystal water beneath the plane tree bough.” Thirty-four Winchester boys have been presenter I with a university certificate, ft is instructive for us to know that ten years ago Winchester was the greatest offender against common sense in the matter of education. Every book containing ideas newer than the Augustan ago wasproscribcdinthat pure sanctuary of media.'valisnl; its babes and sucklings lisped in Latin and Greek numbers. It is gratifying to find that that college now contains a natural science master, a teacher of English literature, and, what is not Hie least important, a competent English man who can at once maintain discipline and teach foreign languages. Next on the list comes Manchester Grammar School, then Marlborough, then Eton. Wellington College and King’s School, Sherborne, are the only two after these credited with double figures. We, purposely give the names of these schools, as we are aware that for good or for evil many of our colonial-bred boys are yearly going home for their education, and it is as well that parents should send their hopefuls home with their eyes open.

After pointing out the desirability of adopting certain measures in Victoria in order to keep pace with-the probable result of efforts iu England, the ‘Age’ continues;— “ In the meantime we must exhort the University to keep up with the times; to remember that Germany and France have languages, that books not altogether despicable are written iu them ; and that it might be desirable that University students should now and then he officially reminded of the fact that England has a large and somewhat important literature of its own, which might with propriety be favored by a chair devoted to it, rather than tacked on as a casual appendage to one already overweighted. And finally, we hope that the public will insist that money shall not he squandered in frivolities like the University Gardens, or on ornamental had Is, when additions to the teaching body are so strongly needed.”