§ 16. Mr. HARRISasked the President of the Board of Education why local education authorities for higher education and secondary schools were required to present whole forms for the general schools (matriculation) examination, seeing that the Board had indicated that they intended to waive this requirement; and whether Circular 1398, which states that the regulations for secondary schools for 1926 will continue in operation, involves the continued requirement that forms in second schools should be presented as a whole for the general schools examination?
§ Lord E. PERCYThe regulations for secondary schools require that, except with the Board's concurrence, a pupil should be entered for a first examination only as one of a form so entered. The Board have not indicated their intention to waive this requirement, but they have recently asked the Secondary Schools Examination Council, in connection with representations which they have received in regard to the scope of the first examination, to advise them as to the desirability of suspending the requirement, and the Council have advised 1738 against its suspension. As the hon. Member knows, it has been the practice of the Board to relax the requirement in various ways to meet the needs of particular schools.