THE ORIGIN OF THE GENERAL CERTIFICATE.

This article explores the origin of the general certificate of education in Great Britain. It is just over a hundred years since the University of Oxford held its first examination "for candidates who are not members of the University." Thus was born the system of University Local Examinations destined to grow into the General Certificate of Education. The initiation and success of the scheme is primarily dedicated to the works of educators Frederick Temple and Thomas Acland. Temple had started his professional career in the Examinations Section of the Education Department. He stressed the necessity of considering how to organize the education of the middle class. Acland, landowner and gentleman farmer, was also at this time being brought face to face with the problem of the improvement of the education of the middle class. As early as 1838 he had written a pamphlet entitled "National Education: The Present State of the Question Elucidated." Acland had strongly supported the claims of the National Society for the education of the poor under a religious rather than a secular aegis. The first idea that suggested itself to Acland for the conduct of the proposed examination was the establishment of self-constituted county boards.