PROS AND CONS OF EXAMINATIONS Against examinations, mainly of the orthodox or traditional type, the following are some of the objections formulated. Most of them apply both to competitive and pass examinations. In the case of the former they are certainly more difficult to answer, but till we have found some other means of selection than competition, most of the defects inherent in such examinations must exist, though some are partially neutralized by the addition of an inter view.
(I) They destroy natural interests and concentrate the pupil's attention on the subjects of the examination to the exclusion of all others. They need not necessarily do this in the case of pass examinations at least, if the papers are carefully graded and pupils take them in their stride. (2) They are apt to furnish the pupils too exclusively with ready-made opinions. This is a large subject and raises the whole question of the rival claims of originality and tradition in education. (3) There is an inevitable tendency for examinations to increase in difficulty. If the ordinary moder ators cannot prevent this, the tendency could be checked by a periodical overhaul of the examination. (4) The questions are frequently unfair. The presence of actual teachers on the Board of Examiners would minimize this and also the previous objections (I), (2) and (3) . (5) Difficulty of maintaining a standard of as sessment between different examiners. This danger has been and is increasingly successfully dealt with. (6) There is too much stress laid on written work, insufficient or insignificant importance attached to the oral test. This could be met by extending the oral test or interview to all cases that mattered, such as borderland cases. (7) The practice of making a candidate who has failed in one subject take the whole examination over again has little logical justification. This anomaly has been rectified in some cases, but the whole matter needs serious reconsideration. In France, for instance, in the licence the system of taking the ex amination piecemeal (see above) is now the rule. (8) Examina tions impose too great a strain on growing pupils, especially girls. This can be largely met by readjustment of the examination on lines suggested in (I), etc. (9) Public examinations are un necessary. Teachers are sufficiently capable of examining and assessing their own children. The co-operation of the teacher is most desirable, but certificates, to have public validity, need a public guarantee.
On the other hand, a large number of people believe, rightly or wrongly, in the stimulus provided by an examination at the close of, or at least at a definite stage in, the pupil's career. They are strongly convinced of the value of such an examination in in ducing the pupils to round off and codify their stock of knowledge, and in enabling them to mobilize and use it at short notice. Again, when the oral test or interview is employed, a more or less "all round" view of the pupil is possible. Paper work deals rather with actual performance, an oral test or interview especially helps to discover promise.
Moreover, no one seriously contests the necessity of exami nations for professional people, however much the examination may be capable of improvement. Criticism mainly centres round school examinations, yet the average business man, while desirous of having a headmaster's recommendation, is also anxious to have an independent estimate of the pupil's ability from another author ity. Moreover, the State, the local authority and the parents also have their rights in the matter. Full justice will be done to the teacher, if, as has been suggested, he is given a position on the board of examiners.
Examinations, whether pass or competitive, cannot in the public interest be abolished till something has been found to take their place. They act as the machinery for sifting out the different kinds and degrees of capacity of the nation. In fact, it is in the further improvement of the machinery, much as it has been im proved in the past, that the principal hope lies, whether it be an extended use of intelligence tests for young children, a preliminary selection for various callings by psychological tests, or a greater flexibility in the examinations for older pupils, leading possibly in the long run to some half-way house towards the American method of "accrediting" in the way of giving credit for certain subjects to the pupil on his certificate, and taking the word of the duly recognized school that adequate time has been devoted to them, while in the sphere of the universities, a degree may be ob tainable by a less rigid course of study either in the way of a larger choice of subjects, or combinations of them, than at present is allowed in most British universities.
(C. BR. ; P. B. B.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-T. D. Acland, Some Account of the Origin and Bibliography.-T. D. Acland, Some Account of the Origin and Objects of the New Oxford Examinations for the Title of Associate in Arts (1858) ; P. B. Ballard, Group Tests of Intelligence and the New Examiner (1924) ; F. Y. Edgeworth, "The Statistics of Examinations and The Element of Chance in Competitive Examinations," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (1888 and 189o)--mathematical disser tations which have led to an improved examination technique; P. J. Hartog, Examinations and their Relation to Culture and Efficiency (1918) ; Hastings Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (1895) ; B. C. Wallis, The Technique of Examining children: a Quest for Capacity (1927) ; Report of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education on Psychological Tests of Educable Capacity and their Possible Use in the Public System of Education (1924) ; Board of Education pamphlet no. 65, Free Place Examinations (1928).