ABSTRACT
Irreverent as it is to say so, the sixth form bids fair to become the sacred cow of English education. There is a noticeable tendency for test-scores to improve with the size of the sixth form, and a similar tendency for pupils in big-city schools to be superior to those in small towns. Clearly, the emphasis placed on science teaching is stronger in England than it is in Scotland, where the preference for literary subjects remains deep-rooted. On the whole, the culture-profiles of Scottish Senior Secondary pupils may appear to be nicely balanced, but that is only because arts-preference and science-preference individuals are lumped together, with the result that any imbalance is masked; further investigation reveals that the proportion of pupils with a positive bias is much the same as it is in English schools.
