§ SIR THOMAS ROE (Derby)On behalf of the hon. Member for North-West Norfolk, I beg to ask the President of the Board of Education whether lie will publish the next result list of the preliminary examination for the elementary school teachers' certificate, with the names in order of merit, and indicate those who have stated their desire to enter a training college.
I beg also to ask the President of the Board of Education whether he will consider the desirability of paying the grants for the maintenance of training colleges and hostels in respect of individual students selected according to the order of merit, as shown by the preliminary examination for the elementary school teacher's certificate, instead of paying grants in respect of 1096 whichever students the colleges choose to admit.
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY TO THE BOARD OF EDUCATION (Mr. MCKINNON WOOD,) Glasgow, St. RolloxThe preliminary examination, as at present organised, is designed to establish a standard rather than to afford a test of comparative merit. There are serious objections to the adoption of the scheme suggested in these Questions. A considerable number of colleges have been, or are being, provided by local education authorities, who naturally desire to give preference to candidates residing in their own areas, and for other colleges connected with Universities certain special educational qualifications will always be needed. To require that candidates should be admitted to the training colleges strictly in an order of merit based on the single examination test suggested would lower the educational standard of the colleges and discourage local authorities from any further efforts to provide for the training of their teachers. It would also, I imagine, preclude the acceptance by the Board of any examination other than the preliminary as qualifying for admission to a training college. Moreover, a single examination, especially when attended by 20,000 candidates, is generally admitted to be an unsatisfactory test by itself. In the opinion of the Board, the authorities of training colleges, with a view to selecting the most suitable students, ought to be at liberty to supplement the examination results by reports from the authorities of the schools at which the candidates have been educated. These reports, in the opinion of the Board, are decidedly more valuable than the evidence obtained from a competitive examination.