EXAMINATIONS

Evening Star, Issue 19799, 24 February 1928, Page 14

EXAMINATIONS

DIFFERENCES FOR SEXES

All ENGLISH HEADMASTER’S GPIKION

Nearly all the public schools of Great Britain were represented in the emphatic declaration made by the Head Masters’ Conference at Rugby, “ that it is neither desirable nor necessary that the conditions of examination imposed for the school certificate should be identical for girls and boys.” This was moved by Mr Frank Fletcher, o) Charterhouse, the president of the conference, and seconded by Dr C. A. Arlington, of Eton, arising out of a cell' nical discussion raised by Dr Terry Thomas, of Leeds, on the question o) the relaxation of the group system as raised by the Head Mistresses’ Association, reports the ‘Daily Telegrapn. Dr Cyril Norwood (Harrow), who is chairman of the Examinations Council of the Board of Education, said .mil body would certainly have to den! with the question in February. Ho would therefore refrain from voting upon the question in that conference. In its origin, he said, the school certificate was intended to bo an examination passing 80 to 85 per cent, of the candidates presented for it. The question immediately arose whether there was the percentage for the good or the bad schools, in practice it had worked out as 67 per cent, on the average. That was not the position which the founders of the certificate intended. “ Another new factor had conic into play since the war,” he said. “There has" been a considerable increase, in the number of secondary schools for boys and girls, and a vast increase in the numbers of boys and girls enjoying secondary education. There is evidence from the side of the boys, and still more from the side of the girls, that many are finding it very hard indeed to roach the standard of the school certificate, and the question is asked whether the group requirement is the right sort of requirement to make. It is urged on the side of the boys that it is forcing whole numbers of those who resort to secondary schools into black-coated occupations; on the side of the girls it is pointed out that the majority are going to be wives and mothers, and that the proper education for the bulk of the girls is one which gives full value to the aesthetic and domestic sides. The question is further complicated by the fact that the bead mistresses are all convinced that what is sauce for the goose is and must always be sauce, for the gander. (Laughter.) THE SCHOOL CERTIFICATE. “We have got to recognise that the school certificate has not only its matriculation value at present, but it lias its recognition from the professional bodies. I know' the difficulties the Board of Education has bad in getting those bodies to accept the school certificate, and if the resolution of the head mistresses is passed the whole of these negotiations with the professional bodies will have to bo gone through again, and it will be a matter of some years. It is obvious that a new school certificate would not have the same value as the old certificate. 1 put that question to the deputation of the head mistresses to the Examinations Council. I asked them if they really felt that a certificate which included English, Latin, French, mathematics, and science was to ho of the same value as one which included English, botany, art, needlework, and cookery, and they replied with great courage that that was what they meant,” Dr Norwood outlined five alternative ways of dealing with tho situation. One w'ould be to differentiate between the schools quito frankly and award a school certificate and a girls’ school certificate. “We are faced with a real problem,” he continued. “ The school certificate does not suit girls’ schools, and, moreover, tho examination system, designed for the secondary schools when they' contained more or less picked pupils, is becoming very burdensome to secondary schools now that they are flooded with material not quite so good. The head mistresses have never been satisfied with tho school certificate from its start. When they came to the Secondary Schools Examination Council in deputation in the early autumn and put their proposals forward I felt that these went to iho root of secondary education as wo understood it in England, and I referred them to the Board of Education to see whether the board had any definite opinions. The board felt, naturally, that they had only one factor .n vim problem before them—the opinion of the head mistresses. They wanted to know what the head masters think. They referred tbe matter definitely to the Head Masters’ Association, and I believe the Head Masters’ Conference will also have an opinion on this matter, even though candidates from, our schools are only one-tenth of those in the country in any year ” EXCESSIVE STRAIN ON GIRLS.

Tho president, moving the declaration quoted, said: “1 am very strongly of the opinion that it is a mistake to try to make the education of boys and girls run on exactly the same lines. I do not think the girls gain by the rather hothouse competition which is sometimes involved. I think the fact that tho head mistresses, or certain members of them, to a much greater extent than bead masters, find the school certificate at present a real burden and strain is definite evidence that tho two lines of education ought to some extent be separate.” Dr Arlington, of Eton, seconded the motion, and said that in his opinion girls’ schools had modelled themselves too closely on boys’ schools. What was wanted was some genius who will do for the education of girls what had been done for boys by great bead masters in the past.

The Rev. C. Grant, of St. George's, Harpenden, a co-education school, said: “ As tho_ nearest approach to a head mistress in this conference—(laughter) -hin cordially in favor of differentiating between the sexes. As many girls as boys'pass the certificate in ray school, but 1 think they suffer more in the process.” The declaration was passed unanimously.