102
population of young people into secondary education. Even widening the ability range
accredited by examination had to wait a further 15 years.
At the outset, the new Board did provide a less traditional approach to examining for
the technical sector for which it had been created. A long-serving official of that
Board recalls:
...in the very early years of the AEB’s existence, ie 1955 onwards for about ten
years, AEB GCE’s were fairly popular in the secondary technical schools.
...And there is no doubt that the AEB was very successful in developing (i)
syllabuses in traditional subjects but with a vocational bias, and (U) syllabuses
in new technical subjects which had not been included in the GCE subject range
hitherto (eg Plastering, Surveying, Carpentry & Joinery, Craftwork: Wood or
Metal and so on).
(AEB, 2004)
Although full data from the early years are not accessible, some information does
exist about the profile of candidate in 1955, the AEB’s first year of operation:
2 409 candidates from 151 centres:
- 60 FE and Technical Colleges
- 43 Secondary Modern Schools
-37 Secondary Technical Schools
Most popular subjects after English Language & Mathematics:
Geometrical Drawing (233 candidates)
Art (192 candidates)
Building Construction (186 candidates)
(AEB, 2004)
Certainly some schools appreciated the appropriate syllabuses and examinations that
an innovative examining board was able to provide for their pupils. The same AEB
official recalls in particular the “ ...head-teacher of Portsmouth Secondary Technical
School during the 1960s emphasising to me that the AEB’s particular mix of
academic and technical approaches had proved a real lifeline for the technical
schools while they lasted” Then the head-teacher of Holland Park, one of London’s
showpiece comprehensive schools, “used to say that one of the real bright spots in life
was the marvellous suitability of many of the AEB’s new syllabuses for his less