THE SCHOOL CERTIFICATE
SIR,—I hope we shall now hear again of the proposal to abolish the School Certificate only in the sense of abolishing the award of a pass-or-fail verdict on the whole examination. If we keep the external examination, but simply send each candidate a certificate giving a detailed report of his achievements, we shall in the main keep the advantages of the present system and avoid its disadvantages. Most people do not realise how silly the present system has been. Candidates have got six credits, covering the sciences, mathematics, English, history and geography, and failed to get a certificate for lack of a pass in a foreign language ; while other candi- dates have got certificates with one credit and four bare passes, adroitly distributed. This sort of thing has certainly been a frying-pan, but it would be stupid to jump thoughtlessly into a fiery furnace ; and a fiery furnace is what the internal certificate would be. Heads of schools would know that if they put their standard too high they would victimise individual candidates immediately, and if they put it too low they would victimise the whole school for years to come., The external Report-Certificate on the other hand has many advantages. It can be used for any qualifying exam., and so can save the school from the nightmare of preparing for a dozen different qualifying exams., each with its own syllabus. A candidate with his Report-Certificate can measure it against the requirements of each of the qualifying exams. in turn, and see at once which of them he has actually passed. Employers will really have to think. Instead of saying simply, " No good unless you've passed Matriculation," they will have to say, "Let me see your Report-Certificate," and there will be no escape from the attempt to make a fair assessment. Examiners could also include more subjects, or adjust existing syllabuses to suit individual schools, if they were not hindered by pass-or-fail rules, and the examinations could be saved from rigidity and the schools from cramming.—Yours faithfully,
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