The Role and Functions of Public Examinations

For a brief time in the mid‐1970s Desmond Nuttall was Secretary to a Certificate in Secondary Education (CSE) Examining Board. Desmond Nuttall was already well known for his work with the National Foundation for Educational Research and his appointment caused quite a stir both among those who expected him to be a catalyst for change in the public examination system and those who thought his talents would be lost in a sea of bureaucracy. His sojourn at the Middlesex Board was to be brief, too brief to prove right either the expectations or the cynics. Within 2 years of his appointment, the Middlesex Board had been absorbed into the London Regional Examinations Board and Desmond Nuttall entered the world of academia from where he continued to play a very significant role in examination developments.