ABSTRACT
The content of the curriculum and the public examinations system were among those issues which were omitted from the Green Book and the white paper on educational reconstruction since any reform would be effected by administrative action rather than by legislation. The wartime growth of a critical and more radical attitude to the traditional curriculum of the secondary schools became marked in 1940. The curriculum was said not to cater for the needs of youth and to be irrelevant to the needs of the contemporary world. It was ‘the weakest and most perverted feature of our system’ and the school certificate examination was ‘the solid lock’ which prevented effective change. The war emergency gave a unique opportunity to end this perversion of the secondary schools.[ 1 ]
