attracted by literary study: their vocational interests do, however, provide a starting point, and interests in other intellectual pursuits which can be followed up, for example, in adult education classes may be developed by at least a few. For the others—probably a large majority-the technical school has served a highly useful purpose. In no other country is there less of a division than here between the higher and the lower ranks of industry, and we owe this in a large measure to the intelligence, enterprise and tenacity of former parttime technical students, not a few of whom have found their way to positions of high responsibility.

54. Students and Examinations.-A bare list of the examinations which at the present day attract candidates taught in schools for further education would show how extraordinarily wide the range of studies has become. It would also suggest that in this part, as in other parts, of the post-elementary field, examinations must be a powerful, if not a dominating, influence. In the earlier days of further education the examinations of three bodies were specially instrumental in promoting development of the system and in setting up standards. The Royal Society of Arts, which never aided schools by grants, encouraged commercial studies. The City and Guilds, which for a comparatively short period only was able to offer payments on results, continued thereafter to promote technological studies. The Board of Education, after the date on which the last grants on results were withdrawn and grants on attendance had become the basis of State aid, continued for a time to offer to individual students, including those in quite early stage of their subjects, the chance of a State certificate of attainments. From 1908 to 1911, in which year science examinations were held for the last time on the old system, the number of exercises examined fell from nearly 65,000 to about 62,500: the decline in the number of art exercises was more marked, as about 49,000 were examined in 1908 and only about 32,000 in 1912, the last year of the old system. The majority of candidates took only one subject of science or art: candidates for scholarships and some others took two or more subjects. The number of individuals examined was, therefore, something less than the number of exercises worked. But though the Board's examinations were falling somewhat out of favour they still affected a larger number of candidates than those of either the City and Guilds Institute (between 22,000 and 24,000 a year in 1908 to 1912) or the Royal Society of Arts (between 26,000 and 33,000 a year in the same period).

55. The part-time student who attends a school to acquire a craft or any manual or other skill which is immediately serviceable in his actual occupation may be indifferent to examinations, unless he has some special reason, such as an intention to teach, for desiring a certificate. But many of the older part-time students in technical and commercial schools are acquiring intellectual or other attainments not likely to be turned to direct account in their present posts,

or even in the positions to which their attainments as educational qualifications may help them to advance. That such students should, so to speak, desire to capitalise the effect of their studies by successes in reputable examinations is as natural as it is for secondary school pupils and university students to seek certificates and degrees or diplomas. The great majority of students in technical and commercial schools attend voluntarily in leisure time and as individuals rather than as members of groups. No large development of advanced study can be expected unless suitable certificates are to be obtained. To this extent it may be taken that in some departments of study examinations are indispensable to progress.

56. In the early days of further education the syllabuses of examining bodies supplied the only guidance which could be given to those of the teachers who, left to their own devices, would have been at a loss to plan courses for their students. In some subjects, at least, examining bodies can no longer function usefully in this direction. The proportion of barely competent teachers has been greatly reduced and technical teaching is concentrated in a comparatively small number of institutions so that the less competent or less experienced teachers can be brought under the direction of principals or heads of departments. Inspectors of varied qualifications, with teaching or other experience, are ready to collaborate with the teachers. Students have come to realise that it is to their advantage to attend on three nights a week, an arrangement which makes possible a systematic and thorough treatment of their subjects as divisible into branches. In this way it comes about that school staffs become more competent than external examining bodies to plan curricula and syllabuses which shall be appropriate to the needs of part-time students, to the time which they can be expected to devote to their education and to the actual organisation of their studies.

57. Grants on examination results were discontinued in 1906, but the examination system itself was not then terminated. In 1911 the Board decided upon a considerable restriction of the science examinations. The elementary examinations were abandoned because they no longer served any purpose that would not be as well served by local examinations of this standard and were, further, as single subject examinations, ill-adapted to the grouped course system upon which the Board desired part-time technical education to be based. Provision for the more advanced stages was still made, but as an alternative the Board offered to endorse certificates issued by schools. For this purpose schools were invited to frame curricula and syllabuses for three-night a week courses to extend over two or three years of study. The examinations were to be internal, subject in the final year to external assessment, and in order to qualify for a certificate a student had not merely to pass the final examination but also to satisfy the requirements of the scheme as to attendance, home work,

and the passing of internal tests in the earlier stages. During the war the advanced examinations were withdrawn except for the purpose of awarding scholarships, including Whitworth Scholarships and the State Scholarships tenable at the Imperial College of Science and Technology. For part-time students at least no suitable external examinations in subjects which the Board had covered were then available. Not many schools elaborated plans for their own certificates, whether for endorsement by the Board or otherwise. As there was thus a prospect that many deserving students would be left without a suitable mark to aim at, the opportunity of exchanging views on the subject with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers was welcomed by the Board, and led to co-operation in a plan for issuing joint certificates. The leading educational principles of the plan of 1911 were retained: but through the appointment of assessors, with functions which correspond to those of external examiners, who co-operate with the teachers of the school acting as internal examiners the Institution obtains guarantees which justify its part in the certification of individual students. The schemes of study are, as before, formulated locally, but are referred to the Institution as well as to the Board in respect of such points as the qualifications of the teachers, the adequacy of the equipment and the general suitability of the curricula and syllabuses. Obviously schemes of this kind throw upon all parties to them work of a kind that did not arise when syllabuses were dictated by examining bodies and questions were set and answers were marked by external examiners. And though the new plan works smoothly enough, simplification, if it were practicable, would be an improvement. But the situation to be dealt with is not simple. Most present day teachers of engineering are men of that standing, professional and academic, which makes it reasonable to hope that they will do their best work if they are not tied down to the task of teaching their students for purely external examinations. On the other hand the schools are numerous and as widely dispersed as is the engineering industry. Few of them as yet enjoy such a reputation as will secure general respect for their certificates if they are not backed by a central body. The intervention of the Institution lends some industrial currency to documents which otherwise might not be highly esteemed even as scholastic evidence of attainment. There is no doubt as to the popularity of the general plan in the schools. It has done at least something to interest members of the engineering profession locally in the technical school of their district. It has demonstrated in one or two schools that the demand of Your Majesty's Inspectors for a higher standard was not unreasonable. Last, and not least, the new plan has encouraged in some of the stronger schools the development of a higher stage of part-time instruction than had previously been attempted.

58. Schemes of a similar character have been negotiated with the Institute of Chemistry and with the Institution of Electrical Engineers. In connection with the Gas Industry a scheme of a rather different

character, extending also to Scotland and Ireland, has been arranged with the Institution of Gas Engineers. Negotiations are proceeding with the Institution of Naval Architects and the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights for a scheme for the benefit of shipbuilding apprentices.

59. The following table shows the extent to which advantage has so far been taken of these schemes:

60. The association of professional institutions with the Board is, of course, appropriate only in respect of those more ambitious students who look forward to work of a professional or semiprofessional character. Arrangements of the kind are less necessary for full-time than for part-time students. Those who have matriculated will normally use opportunities of full-time study to prepare as external (exceptionally as internal) students for a University of London degree. In engineering, however, there is evidently some demand, among full-time students who for one reason or another do not become candidates for degrees, for a record of attainment and training of the National Certificate type. In Chemistry there is no parallel demand and in future the arrangements will make provision for part-time students only. Specially planned provision for students belonging to the Gas industry has not previously existed and as the courses are organised the number of candidates for certificates is expected to grow.

61. In the new system of Art Examinations which was introduced in 1913 the Board abandoned the old plan of holding unco-ordinated tests in the several branchés of technique through which it had been assumed that the training of the artist in his craft could be conducted. The revised scheme provided for five examinations only, the subjects being drawing, painting, modelling, pictorial design and industrial design. In each examination there is a group of tests which, except as indicated in the next sentence, must be taken as a whole at one time. Some concession has been made in the interests of part-time students, who are assumed to be interested in industrial design, by dividing that examination into two parts, but success in both parts is required for success in the examination. The new examinations serve as the basis for awarding scholarships provided by the Board (mainly tenable at the Royal College of Art) and also enter into a scheme for teachers' certificates. The imposition of minimum agelimits, the exclusion from the examinations in painting, modelling and pictorial design of persons who have not passed in drawing, and the exacting character of the examinations themselves, all tend to keep the numbers comparatively low; competitors for scholarships and intending teachers seem to be the majority of the candidates. The following table shows the recent working of the scheme.

1922

1923

1924

1925

Candi- Passed. Candi- Passed. Candi- Passed, Candi- Passed.

In some schools no use is made of these examinations, and in almost every school the great majority of the students are not affected by them.

62. Until 1918 the City and Guilds of London Institute provided for testing students at different stages of their study of technology. The considerations which led to the dropping by the Board of the elementary science examinations as likely to delay progress and to impede the planning and effective carrying out of grouped courses suggested a like objection to the elementary examinations of the Institute. In 1918, after discussion with representatives of the Board, it was agreed to abandon in England and Wales examinations below the final except in very special circumstances and with the Board's consent. Other changes were in principle decided upon, such as the institution for the several subjects of advisory committees,