Saturday, May 30, 2009

Examination standards


The Times published a truly extraordinary photograph from its archives on Friday

Dating back to the real old days – 1966

The final examinations for London candidates of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales

All 2,500 of them. All in one room – the Great Hall at Alexandra Palace (I wonder if they had other regional centres?)

There they sit, row after serried row, divided into roped off pens. Most of them have their jacket off, displaying crisp white shirt & dark tie. Was there central heating or were the bodies enough, even in December?

The picture must show at least one third of the candidates

I cannot spot a single woman among them

(There was one fellow undergraduate who was a girl who was doing an accountancy degree when I was at college)

Times really do change