On the other hand, the defenders of examinations reply that (xiii.) examinations are necessary in order to test the efficiency of schools to which grants of public money are given (this argument has become somewhat out of date owing to the recent substitution of “inspection” for examination as a test of the efficiency of schools; a combination of inspection and examination is also sometimes used); (xiv.) they serve as a necessary incentive to steady and concentrated work[4] (the reply made to this is that the incentive is a bad one, and that with efficient teachers it is unnecessary); (xv.) they show both student and teacher where they have failed (unnecessary for efficient teachers); (xvi.) though possibly harmful to the highest class of men, they are good for the mass (reply: no system which damages the highest class of men is tolerable); (xvii.) they are indispensable as an impartial means of selecting men for the civil service; (xviii.) in a difficult examination like the first class civil service examination the qualities of quickness of comprehension, industry, concentration, power of rapidly passing from one subject to another, good health, are necessary for success, though not tested directly, and these qualities are valuable in any kind of work (this appears to be incontrovertible); (xix.) examination records show that success in examinations is generally followed by success in after-life, and the test is therefore efficient (it does not follow that certain rejected candidates may not be extremely efficient); (xx.) as a plea for purely “external examinations,” teachers cannot be trusted to be impartial and it is better for a boy to “cram” than to curry favour with his teacher (Latham).
The brief comments in brackets, appended above to the arguments, merely indicate what has been said or can be said on the other side. It can scarcely be doubted that in spite of the powerful objections that have been advanced against examinations, they are, in the view of the majority of English people, an indispensable element in the social organization of a highly specialized democratic state, which prefers to trust nearly all decisions to committees rather than to individuals. But in view of the extreme importance of the matter, and especially of the evidence that, for some cause or other (which may or may not be the examination system), intellectual interest and initiative seem to diminish in many cases very markedly during school and college life in England, the whole subject seems to call for a searching and impartial inquiry.
Sources of Information.—The works mentioned above, and T.D. Acland, Some Account of the Origin and Objects of the New Oxford Examinations for the Title of Associate in Arts (London, 1858); Matthew Arnold, Higher Schools and Universities in Germany (1874); Graham Balfour, The Educational Systems of Great Britain and Ireland (2nd ed., Oxford, 1903); W.W. Rouse Ball, Origin and History of the Mathematical Tripos (Cambridge, 1880); Adolf Beier, Die höheren Schulen in Preussen und ihre Lehrer (1902-1906) (in progress); Cloudesley Brereton, “A New Method of awarding Scholarships,” School World, 1907, p. 409; G.C. Brodrick, A History of the University of Oxford (London, 1886); F. Buisson, Dictionnaire de pédagogie (1880-1887); Lord Curzon of Kedleston, Principles and Methods of University Reform (1909); J. Demogeot and H. Montucci, De l’enseignement supérieur en Angleterre et en Écosse (1870); H. Denifle, Die Universitäten des Mittelalters bis 1400 (Berlin, 1885); F.Y. Edgeworth, “The Statistics of Examinations,” and “The Element of Chance in Competitive Examinations,” Journal of the Statistical Society, 1888 and 1890 respectively; H.W. Eve, Lecture “On Marking,” in The Practice of Education (Cambridge, 1883); Charles E. Fawsitt, The Education of the Examiner (Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow) (Glasgow, 1905); J.G. Fitch, “The Proposed Admission of Girls to the University Local Examination,” Education Miscellanies (1865), vol. x.; W. Garnett, “The Representation of certain Examination Results,” Journ. Statist. Soc. (Jan. 1910); G. Stanley Hall, Adolescence (London, 1905); Sir W. Hamilton, Discussions on Philosophy (London, 1853); P.J. Hartog, “Universities, Schools and Examinations” in the University Review (July 1905); P.J. Hartog and Mrs A.H. Langdon, The Writing of English (1907); Auberon Herbert (edited by), The Sacrifice of Education to Examination, Letters from “All Sorts and Conditions of Men” (1889); Influence of Examinations, Report by a Committee, British Association Reports for 1903, p. 434. and for 1904, p. 360; John Jebb, Remarks upon the Present Mode of Education in the University of Cambridge (4th ed., 1774); Henry Latham, On the Action of Examinations (Cambridge, 1877); H.C. Maxwell Lyte, A History of the University of Oxford to the Year 1530 (London, 1886); W.A.P. Martin, The Lore of Cathay (Edinburgh and London, 1901); J.B. Mullinger, The University of Cambridge (Cambridge, 1873); How to pass Examinations successfully, by an Oxford Coach; Mark Pattison, Suggestions on Academical Organization (Edinburgh, 1868); Friedrich Paulsen, The German Universities and University Study (London, 1906) and Geschichte des gelehrten Unterrichts (Leipzig, 1896); George Peacock, Observations on the Statutes of the University of Cambridge (1841); Programme des examens du nouveau baccalauréat de l’enseignement secondaire, Delalain frères, Paris; Hastings Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1895); Rein’s Encyklopädisches Handbuch der Pädagogik (2nd ed., 1902, &c. ), articles “Prüfungen” (by F. Paulsen), &c. ; Third Report of the Royal Commissioners on Scientific Instructions, 1873; J.E. Thorold Rogers, Education in Oxford (1861); M.E. Sadler, “Memorandum on the Leaving Examinations ... in the Secondary Schools of Prussia,” in Report of Royal Commission on Secondary Education, vol. v. p. 27 (1895); C.A. Schmid, Geschichte der Erziehung (Stuttgart, 1884, &c. ), and Encyklopädie des gesammten Erziehungs- und Unterrichtswesens (2nd ed., 1876-87), articles “Prüfung,” “Schulprüfungen,” “Versetzungsprüfungen,” &c. ; Scholarships, various papers on, by H.B. Baker, A.A. David, H.A. Miers, M.E. Sadler and H. Bompas Smith, and others, British Association Report, 1907, pp. 707-718; Arthur Schuster, article on “Universities and Examinations” in the University Review (May 1905); W.H. Sharp, The Educational System of Japan (Office of the Director-General of Education in India) (Bombay, 1906); Special Educational Reports, issued by the Board of Education, passim; A.M.M. Stedman, Oxford: its Life and Schools (London, 1887); I. Todhunter, Conflict of Studies (1873); William Whewell, Of a Liberal Education (London, 1845); Christopher Wordsworth, Scholae academicae (Cambridge, 1877); Étienne Zi (or Siu or Seu), Pratique des examens littéraires en Chine (Shanghai, 1894). Private information from Professor M.E. Sadler and Mr A.E. Twentyman.
(P. J. H.; A. Wn.)
[1] W.W. Rouse Ball in his History of the Study of Mathematics at Cambridge (1889), p. 193, states that he can find no record of any European examinations by means of written papers earlier than those introduced by R. Bentley at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1702.
[2] It should be mentioned that the professors of chemistry of a number of German, Austrian and Swiss universities, have, by agreement, instituted an intermediate examination in that subject which students are required to pass before beginning work on the doctoral thesis. The examination of the students is conducted by the teachers concerned.
[3] See E.E. Brown in Monographs on Education in the United States (ed. by N.M. Butler, 1900, i. 164), and T. Gregory Foster and H.R. Reichel, Report of Mosely Educational Commission (1904), pp. 117-119 and 288-289.
[4] The Oxford commissioners of 1852 reported that “the examinations have become the chief instruments not only for testing the proficiency of the students but also for stimulating and directing the studies of the place” (Report, p. 61).