38 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

and the determination of the preparatory school timetable
 by the common entrance and scholarship examinations
 of the public schools, must be replaced by the closest
co-operation between the authorities concerned, allowing
each, nevertheless, freedom of action in its own sphere.
[f the principle of a general education for all up to the
age of 16 to 164, with limited and progressive specialization
 after that age be conceded, then there should be
what one might call a passing-out examination at that
stage set by a central authority, either the Board of
Education, or the Oxford and Cambridge Examinations
Board, or preferably a committee of public school masters
themselves.
A certificate obtained in this examination should be
accepted as a guarantee of a reasonable standard of
general education, and the universities should accept
this in lieu of their present entrance examinations.
Before specializing a boy would have consequently
left this Examination behind him ; he would be free during
 his last two years at school to develop his own
special bent untrammelled by the spectre of the Previous
Examination or Responsions continually ahead of him.
Such a reform would be of inestimable advantage to education
 generally, not only of the individual boy, not only
in the public school, but also in the universities themselves


Finally we come to the question of staff. Head
masters often have little idea of the amount of time required
 for devising and arranging demonstrations and
practical work. In the better-equipped schools it is
usual to have laboratory assistants to do the more menial
work connected with science teaching, but in some schools
this has to be done by the science master. The duties
of a science master frequently include :—
1. Actual teaching ; about twenty-five hours a week,