Examination ARe Limits
Sia,—The writer of your paragraph Bright Boys and Dull wrongly assumes—as a great many people seem to do—that both the intention and the result of the age-limit for G.C.E. are " to hold the bright pupil back in order to keep him level with the dull pupil." That this was not the Minister of Education's intention can be seen from Circular 168, based on the Report of the Secondary Schools Council ; it is clear that one of the chief reasons for the new set-up is to provide more effectively for the needs of pupils of varying capacity and rates of progress, and that the bright pupil is not meant to take the Ordinary level papers in his or her main subjects, which will be taken at Advanced level later on. In practice, moreover, bright pupils will get into the sixth form, under the new system, no later than before ; and the risk of strain imposed by a comprehensive external examination at 14 or 15 will be avoided. No pupil can be the worse for this, and some may be much the better. Give the devil his duel—Yours obediently, H. K. LUCE. School House, Durham.
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