STREAMING AND THE ELEVEN PLUS EXAMINATION

Most junior schools carry out a policy of streaming, that is to say, the children are divided into an A stream of the cleverest, a B stream of the next in ability, and so on. Each stream constitutes one class. In the average school the C stream is the lowest. This system (selectivity and division) is primarily based on theories of intelligence which permeate the whole educational system. It was once held that intelligence was an inborn quality and therefore unchangeable, and that it defined and limited the development of the child’s intellectual attainments. The main task of the junior school one seems to be the achievement of the maximum number of passes in the Secondary Selection Examination, popularly known as the ‘Eleven Plus (11+) examination’. The name 11+ appears to refer to the age at which children transfer to a secondary school, rather than to the age at which they take the examination (in their last year at primary school, at about 10 ½ ).

Whilst English education is controlled locally, through the county councils, and there is therefore much variation, the general pattern of this examination remains largely the same throughout the country. It consists of three tests – one in English, one in arithmetic and one Intelligence Test, the latter is thought to play the dominant role. It enables the testers to determine the child’s Intelligence Quotient, or IQ.

Children are allocated to the different types of secondary school according to their results in the 11+ examination. The children with the best results go to a grammar school. The children with lower marks go to modern or technical schools.

 

 

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL TREATMENT

 

Match the following words and word-combinations with the pictures

the blind, partially sighted, deaf, partially hearing, delicate, educationally subnormal, epileptic, maladjusted, physically handicapped, suffering from speech defects.

 

Read and try to understand the article without a dictionary, then read and translate it consulting a dictionary:

 

Clearly if the local authorities are to offer such a variety of schools as are desirable in view of the abilities and aptitudes of the pupils, they must accommodate those pupils who suffer from any disability of mind or body. They must offer appropriate special educational treatment – either in special schools or otherwise, ten categories of pupils requiring special educational treatment have been defined by the Secretary of State in the Handicapped Pupils and Special Schools Regulations of 1959. These are: the blind, partially sighted, deaf, partially hearing, delicate, educationally subnormal, epileptic, maladjusted, physically handicapped, and those suffering from speech defects.

Every local educational authority must ascertain what children in its area require special educational treatment.

There are still regulations governing the maximum size of classes in special schools – 10 for deaf or partially hearing pupils, or pupils suffering from speech defects; 15 for blind, particularly sighted, or maladjusted pupils; 20 for a class of educationally subnormal, epileptic, or physically handicapped pupils; 30 for delicate pupils.

There are certainly not enough places in special schools for children with the various kinds of physical handicaps. There are not enough places for maladjusted children either, and the provision for the educationally subnormal and for children unsuitable for education in school is a positive scandal. In the first place, classes in ordinary schools are far too large for individual treatment to be given in them to educationally subnormal children. There are very few teachers in ordinary schools who have been specially trained for this job.

 

Read the following words aloud:

[a: ] – are, far, large, class, partially [o: ] – or, form, short, normally, ordinary

[Λ ] – such, must, suffer, otherwise, subnormal [ai] – mind, kind, blind, sighted, describe

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