Despite all the new thinking, there is still…

Despite all the new thinking, there is still no acceptable alternative to the examination. Whether it be at the end of term, or the year, or at the end of a school course or for the purpose of choosing candidates for a course of study and training, the only practicable way of measuring a student’s performance or of assessing his potential is by an examination, supplemented where necessary, by recommendation, interview and other devices. The most unfortunate by-product of the examination system has been the proliferation of study notes, guides to passing examination, model answers, hints for writing essays and similar travesties of education. There is no need to engage on the unethical nature of these publications. From the student’s point of view a rigorous censorship of this kind of publication would be a great advantage. For one thing these ‘notes’ promote the habit of rote learning. For the other, they are priced more highly than the poems of Wordsworth or the plays of Shakespeare, although they are not worth the paper they are printed on. The sooner we find a way to dispense with these, the better it is for the student community and the system at large.