The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-28 00:00:00

OXFORD LOCAL EXAMINATIONS.

The titles and certificates awarded to the success-
ful candidates at the Oxford Local Examination, held
in Birmingham in June last, were distributed yes-
terday—the Rev. Dr. Temple, of Rugby, presided.
The Rev. CHAIRMAN, prior to distributing the
prizes, addressed the assembly. Ile said he should
follow the usual practice of the chairman on previous
occasions, of saying a few words upon the general
subject of the success or failure, prosperity or ad-
versity, that might attend the examinations. Ile
need not go into generalities, because that had so fre-
quently been done before. It was one of the great
difficulties in education, which both learners and
teachers constantly met with—so constantly, that it
was very remarkable they should need to be so fre-
quently reminded of it, and yet, being himself a
teacher, he often needed to be reminded of it, and
he was certain it must be the case of others also—
one of the great difficulties in all education was to
secure sufficient attention to the beginnings. The
beginnings of all learning always ran the risk of be-
ing run over too rapidly, and the original purpose of
those examinations was to lay great stress upon the
elementary subjects which are in perpetual danger
of being hurried over by the teachers and learners.
To the learners there always will be the very
strongest temptation, if they wish to learn at all,
to go ahead ; they will always want to get at the
new knowledge before they have made themselves
really masters of the old, and this temptation also
infects the minds of the teachers. Therefore, in
these examinations great stress from the beginning
was laid upon the elementary subjects, upon the pre-
liminary part of the examinations, and of all the
work that had been done by them there was no part
so sound or good as the steady progress which had
been made in these preliminary subjects from the
beginning. The Doctor remarked upon the striking
improvements which the candidates had evinced
with regard. to their arithmetic. Ile added that
NOten the present scheme was started the Universi-
ties had no means of knowing, except by report,
what would be the best for the different schools.
lie had no doubt that the time would come for im-
proving the organisation of the scheme, and then, of
course, all suggestions from persons capable of judg-
ing would be entertained. Upon this subject, how-
ever, there was such a divided state of opinion
that he should advise them to let the subject go on
in a tentative way,feeling how things worked before
they were accepted. Now, the progress made by
the examinations, besides the soundness of the work,
was also visible in the numbers of candidates. In
this district the numbers were diminished, but if
they took England over the numbers were very
much increased. Of course it was impossible that
any organisation could be devised to suit everybody
at once, and therefore what arrangements might be
best for England would not be best for Birming-
ham. But it was not merely the case that the num-
bers for the whole of England had increased, but
more than this, those who had come in were satis-
fied the thing was good. He concluded by briefly
addressing the successful and unsuccessful candi-
dates, congratulating the former, and urging the
latter to increased exertions. (Applause.)