A survey of the intelligence and attainments of Ceylonese children in the age group 11-15

• Main Author: Fernando, J. M. F. G.
• Published: UCL Institute of Education (IOE) 1954
• Subjects: 370.15
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.519624

Ceylon has seen very rapid changes in the educational field particularly in the past ten years, consequent on the acceptance of the Report of the Special Committee on Education, 194, by the State Council in the following year. This Committee recommended, among other things, a scheme of free education from the kindergarten to the University, and a scheme of post-primary education, the selection of pupils for which was to be made on the results of a general intelligence test, and attainment tests in language and arithmetic, both of which were to be administered in the mother tongue of the pupils. This Committee also stressed that one of the major defects in the system of education in Ceylon was its excessive uniformity, in that it was purely academic, and recommended that post-primary education should be differentiated according to the abilities and aptitudes of pupils. Ten years have passed since these major recommendations were accepted and given statutory significance, but no tests have yet been constructed and standardized for the selection of pupils for secondary education according to their abilities and aptitudes. The writer, therefore, interested in educational research, has attempted to carry out the above survey on an island-wide scale; incidentally, it is the first of its kind in the history of education in Ceylon. Making use of his non-verbal intelligence group test constructed and validated for Ceylonese children in 1950, and of attainment tests in language and arithmetic, and a practical ability test, all of which were specifically constructed and validated for this survey, the writer has administered these tests to a random representative sample of over 7000 Ceylonese boys and girls in the above age-group, in their mother tongue. An account of this investigation and the results of this survey are reported in this thesis.