THE PETERITE Vol. XLIII
FEBRUARY. 1951
No. 326
EDITORIAL The term reviewed by this issue of "The Peterite" ended with an event of real significance in the history of Education in England. The December School Certificate Examination was the last of its kind. As the Headmaster remarked at an Assembly in the early days of the Easter Term, when he presented the Certificates to the successful candidates, the recipients had "made history". They are the last of their race, "S.C." and "H.S.C." are no more, and we are already becoming familiar with the newcomer, G.C.E. (General Certificate of Education), with its qualifications of '0', 'Alt. 0', or 'A'—all much more cumbersome, but ours is an age which specializes in initials and will not easily be disconcerted. The School Certificate Examination came into vogue, one may say, much about the same time as the electric tram, and its demise also coincides roughly with the virtual extinction of that cumbersome vehicle. Perhaps the reason is the same and is summed up in the limerick :"How unpleasant to think that I am Predestined to move In a circumscribed groove, In fact, not a 'bus, but a tram." The lack of flexibility in the old examination system is not, perhaps, suited to the complications of life today. This is not the place to discuss the merits or demerits of its successor, which will make its first public appearance in the Summer Term, but at any rate it gives the individual considerable freedom of choice; which in these days of planning and regimentation is perhaps a little surprising. (But be careful that you are 16 on the 1st September.) Veteran readers, who can recall the halcyon time when no external examination interrupted the even tenor of a boy's school career except, perhaps, the Open Scholarships at Oxford and Cambridge (if he aspired to anything so exalted), may wonder whether the wheel will one day turn full circle and G.C.E.(0), G.C.E.(Alt. 0), and G.C.E.(A) will also perish from the earth—to be replaced by nothing. 1