In two successive weeks the Headmasters of Mill Hill and
of Harrow '(in that chronological order) have declared their profound conviction of the wrongheadedness of the Minister of Education's ruling that no boy may take the new Certificate examination before the age of 16 (which may be raised to 17). Dr. Whale made the telling point that out of 110 candidates for School Certificates at. Mill Hill this term 32 would have been disqualifiFd by this arbitrary age-qualification. Mr. R. W. Moore, holding views just as strong, affects to entertain some lingering hope that Mr. Tomlinson may still see reason in this matter. I doubt it. There are subtle " parity of esteem" considerations at work here, so the bright boy, whom his headmaster knows to be perfectly ready to take the examination before 16, and whose parents are anxious for him to take it, is summarily checked by a Ministry of Education regulation which knows nothing of boys as individuals but only as an impersonal mass to be legislated for wholesale. Once more the man in Whitehall knows best—and people outside Whitehall suffer.
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