Page:Essays and Addresses.djvu/656

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practical sciences, such as Engineering and Agriculture, were brought together at the same centre where the Faculty of Education had its seat, then it should not be difficult, without unduly trenching on the time demanded by scientific or technical studies, to provide such students with facilities for some measure of good literary training.

A further subject is necessarily suggested by that with which we have been dealing,—I mean the relation of University to Secondary Education; but on that I can only touch very briefly. Before University Education can be widely efficient, it is indispensable that Secondary Education should be fairly well developed and organised. Secondary Education should be intelligent,—liberal in spirit,—not too much trammelled by the somewhat mechanical uniformity apt to result from working for external examinations, but sufficiently elastic to allow for different aptitudes in the pupils, and to afford scope for the free initiative of able teachers. It is a gain for the continuity of education when a school-leaving examination can be accepted as giving admission to the University. Such an examination must be conducted under the authority of the University; but there is much to be said in favour of the view that, under proper safeguards, the school-teachers should have a part in the examination; always provided that the ultimate control, and the decision in all cases of doubt, shall rest with the University. A system of school-leaving examinations for this country was earnestly advocated, I believe, by Mr P. A. Barnett, who has achieved