PROPOSED NEW SCHOOL EXAMINATION STRUCTURE IN SCOTLAND.

The article provides information on the proposed new school examination structure in Scotland. In a Report of a Committee of the Advisory Council on Education in Scotland, entitled "The Post-Fourth Year Examination Structure in Scotland," a proposal has been made about the certification of education. The Committee has completed its consideration of one part of its remit, namely, to consider the post-fourth-year examination structure in Scotland. The present Scottish Leaving Certificate has two grades, a lower and a higher, except in the subject of Mathematics in which additional papers may be taken by candidates in their sixth year. The new proposals would add an advanced grade not only in the subjects of the higher grade but also in certain other subjects not generally considered "academic." The main purpose of the advanced grade examination is to encourage the development of genuine sixth-form work in the last year of the pupils' secondary schooling. The Committee are aware of possible difficulties and defects in the working out of their proposals. The Committee make a unanimous recommendation that the higher grade papers should continue to be set, if only because the universities appear likely to base their own certificate of attestation of fitness on higher grade passes, and other professional bodies, as banking and insurance, recognize such passes.