Testing Times: As Thousands of Pupils Prepare for Their Exam Results, Richard Willis Describes the Origins of School Examinations in England

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COMPLAINTS ABOUT GRADE INFLATION and the government's refusal to alter radically the school examinations' system abound, but these will not detract from the joy or disappointment of thousands of school students as they learn their GCSE, AS and A-level results this summer. Whatever their grades, they are unlikely to give much thought to the origins of school examinations in England, which were a Victorian innovation masterminded by the obscure College of Preceptors, a teachers' society founded in Bloomsbury, London, in 1846.

Seventy years earlier, the economist Adam Smith had proposed public examinations in The Wealth of Nations (1776). Although suspicious of any system that might lead to government interference on a large scale, he recognized the importance of an educated workforce and suggested a competition that awarded prizes to the successful participants. Smith's competitive examinations in trade and commerce were taken up by Jeremy Bentham, who extended the principle to education and the public service. His proposal for a scheme of examinations was outlined in 1827, and the government's eventual decision in 1846 to adopt qualifying examinations for teachers in elementary schools owed much to his …