ByMyReckoning

So another bumper crop of English ‘A’ level and GCSE results has been announced. ‘A’ levels are becoming more like ‘O’ levels of yesteryear in terms of difficulty. As a result, from what I’ve heard, Universities now spend a year teaching students to spell and count so that they can understand their timetables and get to lectures on time.

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The whole system is being dumbed down and Government Ministers, teachers unions and parents are all dressing up in the emperors new clothes to congratulate each other on ever improving exam results. These exams are now virtually impossible to fail.

Its a natural consequence of making the following three changes to the old system:

• Making exam boards market their ‘products’ to schools forcing them to avoid making exams too hard for fear of loosing ‘customers’.
• Judging teachers on the performance of their pupils in exams. (this has some merit but needs to be tweaked). They are now tempted to help pupils with course work and in some cases pupils are allowed to have 2 .... yes 2!!!!! attempts at some pieces of course work.
• Increasing the amount of course work and allowing any pupil with half a brain to complete them and gain full marks with the help of their mates, teachers, parents and the next door neighbours cat.

Education ministers and civil service official know exactly what is happening, but years of pressure, a lack of honesty and ideas has led them to ‘game’ the system in order to produce the results parents have demanded for decades. Parents now have what they think they asked for. Johnny and Sally each have 6 meaningless A grades at A level each! The problem is that so do all their neighbours kids.

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The system is supposed to grade people according to merit. The possibility of abject failure is supposed to be a component of any natural system, otherwise kids don’t learn the value and joy of achieving and competing through their own efforts, since these apparent achievements are acquired too easily.

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