THE BEST IN EDUCATION Sut,—May I, the headmaster of an
old-established grammar school now maintained by a county education authority, add a word in support of Principal Murray's letter in a recent Spectator? Next September I shall admit two forms in which 90 per cent, of the boys come from county primary schools. If the results of the entrance examination are anything to go by—and I am instructed to abide by them—then the level of attain- ment in English and arithmetic falls far short of that indicated by the intelligence test in every case. This state of affairs has existed long enough for the consequences to be demonstrable. My staff are forced to spend the first year of a five-year School Certificate course doing the elementary work which we have the right to think should have been completed before the boys reach us. At the top of the school it is rare indeed for a boy to have more than two years in the VIth form, barely time to cover the Higher Certificate syllabus. Those who go on to the universities soon realise that in the struggle to remedy their early shortcomings we have been forced to cut to a minimum the time devoted to anything but specialist training. I need scarcely say that I do not blame this sad state of affairs on the teachers in primary schools, but on conditions which they themselves abhor. • Even so, I beg leave to sign myself merely,—
HEADMASTER.
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