TESTS AND TEACHING
SIR,—The much-criticised "Group System" in the School Certificate examination was devised to ensure a good " all-round " secondary education and to prevent premature specialisation: Mr. Poskitt re- cognises that these ends were achieved, for he -writes, " The system raised academic standards, prevented early specialisation, and saved schools from preparation for a variety of examinations." He does not recognise, however, that the abolition of the " Group System " will result in -a lowering of academic standards. encourage early specialisation, and hence in time lead the various professional bodies to devise their own entrance examinations:
The principle underlying the " Group System " is illustrated in another application by the Master of Balliol in his article on the County Badge scheme. We may adapt his argument as follows: " The idea behind the Group System is the enormous differ- ence- it makes when all the subjects are considered as forming necessary parts of a whole, the various tests supplementing one another, the Certificate being given only for the threefold achieve- ment. Practically all boys find that they have • more natural aptitude for one or other of these tests, and if left to themselves they will aim at a high standard in the subject they are good at and neglect the ones they are less good at."
And so on, mutatis mutandis.
The fact that the general principle underlying the physical tests of the County Badge, or the Fourfold Achievement, is now being abandoned in the case of the academic tests of the S.C. examination seems to call for some explanation. Incidentally, Dr. Lindsay attributes the fact that many State Scholarship boys are forced into a lop-sided education to the loose connexion of intellectual training with the rest of school life. That is undoubtedly one of the factors involved, but my own experience suggests that in many instances the chief factor is poverty in the boys' homes. Such boys are often undernourished during the whole of their school life, and the results are serious psychologically as well as physically. Educationists who have no first-hand knowledge of the depressing power of poverty would do well to read and ponder all the relevant information to be found in Mr. Rowntree's recent Poverty and Progress.—Yours faithfully, .
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