HC Deb 11 May 1885 vol 298 cc128-9
DR. CAMERON

asked the Vice President of the Committee of Council, Whether it is true, as stated by a correspondent in The Scotsman of May 1st, that the following questions were set by the Inspector of the Department to Standard VI. children in some of the schools in Perthshire in March last:— Hay for five hundred mules cost £77 per week. If hay rises in price so that three tons cost as much as five now do, find the price of hay for sixty horses during sixty days, allowing to three horses as much as to five mules; if five boxes of coffee are equal in weight to seven boxes of tea, but two boxes of tea are equal in value to five boxes of coffee, what will be the price of a box of coffee if a box of tea cost £10; whether it is true as stated that the questions at inspections in Perthshire have been of a similar description for years past; whether it is intended that Standard VI. should be passed by children of twelve; and, whether, in view of the fact that the extremely low percentage of passes in Standard VI. in Perthshire as compared with other counties in Scotland is due to the exceptional number of failures in arithmetic, he will suggest that the arithmetical test as applied by the departmental inspector should be of a less puzzling character?

MR MUNDELLA

We have communicated with the Inspector for Perthshire, and it appears that of the two questions the second was not set in the terms quoted. The first question was sot together with three others which were much simpler, and of the four only two were required to secure a pass. The questions set were on a separate card; it was not, therefore, expected that the same scholar should attempt both. It is not intended that Standard VI. should be passed by children of 12; and, in fact, out of 49,660 children of that age, only 19,742 were examined in the Sixth Standard. The reason why the Sixth Standard passes in Perthshire are below the average is because in many of the rural schools of that county children are qualified for examination Thy 150 attendances; but in the general passes in arithmetic there are many counties in which the percentage of passes is lower than in Perth. I may add, however, that the Department has already taken steps to secure greater uniformity in the examination papers in Scotland, so as to prevent a different Standard for passes being applied by different Inspectors.