[TO Ten lemon OR THE 'SPECTATOR:1 Sra,—Having read with much
interest your article on the adoption of viva-voce methods of examination for scholarships at Clayesmore School in your issue of July 27th, may I say that the same Method has been recently tried on a large scale in another quarter ? The West Riding County Council Education Committee have been sufficiently before the public on certain matters of educational policy, but they are not behindhand in the "weightier matters of the law." They have adopted a scheme for examinations for their minor scholar- ships and intending pupil teacherships which will probably be of interest to those who are concerned in education. Instead of the usual formal written examination the following scheme has been adopted:— (1) All applications for these positions are considered in the localities by a local committee of teachers with power to reject candidates who, in their opinion, are manifestly unfit.
(2) Two written papers are set,—one on English, designed to test the power of accurate writing and to bring out native powers of thought and ability to reproduce the thoughts of another ; the other a wide paper on arithmetic, so constructed as to give every candidate ample opportunity of showing accuracy of work, grasp of method, and ability to deal with simple problems rather than with mechanical rules.
(3) Finally comes an oral examination, confined in the first instance to those who had reached a given percentage of the possible total on the two written papers.
The scheme has been put into force for the first time this year. The number of candidates was very large,—over two thousand five hundred took the written examination, and these were reduced to about nine hundred for the oral. The age limits for the two classes of candidates ran from eleven to fifteen, the candidates themselves came in most cases from elementary schools, but by no means always. The written examination aimed at securing reasonable proficiency in what may be called the tools of education, with openings for the display of original thought or observation; but these two latter points were tested mainly in the oral. By actual
questioning of the candidates so as to judge their reasoning powers, their ability to apply to the explanation of common phenomena the knowledge they possessed, and their habitual use of observation, it was much easier to ascertain which of them had growing powers of mind and not merely acquisitive faculties. This is a matter of great importance from the point of view of the public interest, and especially important in the case of those who are proposing to devote themselves to the profession of teaching. Personality could be gauged, and after all it is largely personality which tells in life in the long run. A valuable commentary by the examiners on the answers to the written questions has been furnished to all the head teachers, while as a means of selecting the candidates who are likely to be of most service the experiment has been so far quite successful. The novelty and the extent of this experi- ment must be my excuse for troubling you at such length.—I
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