So contemptible has the standard of acquirement
been found to be among the youths who obtain the nomination from the
minister which entitles them to offer themselves as candidates, that
the competition of such candidates produces almost a poorer result
than would be obtained from a mere pass examination; for no one
would think of fixing the conditions of a pass examination so low as
is actually found sufficient to enable a young man to surpass his
fellow-candidates. Accordingly, it is said that successive years
show on the whole a decline of attainments, less effort being made
because the results of former examinations have proved that the
exertions then used were greater than would have been sufficient to
attain the object. Partly from this decrease of effort, and partly
because, even at the examinations which do not require a previous
nomination, conscious ignorance reduces the number of competitors to a
mere handful, it has so happened that though there have always been
a few instances of great proficiency, the lower part of the list of
successful candidates represents but a very moderate amount of
acquirement; and we have it on the word of the Commissioners that
nearly all who have been unsuccessful have owed their failure to
ignorance not of the higher branches of instruction, but of its very
humblest elements- spelling and arithmetic.
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