A Level results farce continues
by Brian Turner
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A-Levels results showed no sign of abating the trend of continued increases in pass grades, with the national pass rate up 0.3% to 96.9%, and results with an A up 1.2″ to 25.3%.
It demonstrates a continuing trend of dumbing down of the British education system, with politicians and exam boards spinning the results as down to good teaching, when the reverse is actually true.
While certainly schools can now be more selective with who attends subjects, with students unlikely to pass often removed from courses, it is an irrefutable fact that exams have been getting easier for at least three decades.
The result is that the modern A level student almost certainly knows less about their subject than a O level student from the 1970’s.
The general dumbing down of exams is something politicians have been loathe to admit – focused on bean-counting and setting targets which they can meet, and examining boards which are expected to help see these targets achieved with results – provided through easier exam papers.
However, the constant trend of removing difficult topic areas from A Level studies has been going on since at least the 1980’s.
This is especially the case in science subjects, with some exam boards especially making exams easier to pass by removing the need for knowledge of advanced knowledge.
For example, in 1990 the NEA Advanced Physics syllabus required the study of calculus for examinations. However, by the late 1990’s this had been removed.
In other sciences, such as chemistry, different examination boards required a different level of advanced maths understanding, while others slimmed down topic areas so that only basics would need to be covered, rather than any advanced understanding.
Overall, there remains a great disparity between the levels of academic ability required across different exam boards, coupled with the additional problem of exam boards making exams easier to pass.
In the meantime, A Level students continue to be awarded ever increasing grades, with the danger that employers and universities will soon no longer be able to treat their certificates as an objective assessment of academic ability and knowledge.
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This is under the heading ‘news’ – but it just seems to be your personal opinion – what are you basing your ‘news’ on. Having been an employer of staff for the last 40 years – I also have an opinion, which is probably more valid than yours. I can say, with my hand on my heart, that the school leavers I take on now are far more able to cope with the challenge of what is a far more complex work environment than they used to be in the ‘good old days’. New school leavers are far more adaptable to change and they learn more quickly. So what if they need a calculator to add up – the fact that they understand the logic of the problems set before them sets them apart. I’m retiring soon, and I’ll do so happily if we keep populating the workplace with the same level of able students.
Whether or not you feel they are better able to work in the modern business environment, the news is that A-Levels continue to have record pass rates, and the exams continue to be easier.
It’s also worth pointing out that today’s school leavers may appear more adaptable, simply as a circumstance of the modern lifestyle, and certainly nothing to do with the examination system. After all, I have never heard of either an A-Level or A-Level module that teaches adaptability.
2c.