Failing the students

How very dare they?? The people who mark the UK's public examinations (GCSEs and A-levels) have broken a two-decades-old tradition this year, by slightly reducing the average grade awarded.  Most of the media are hailing an end to the "grade inflation" that has led some universities to rely on their own entrance exams or international diplomas like the Baccalaureat to select candidates, rather than on the established exams.

Teachers, however,  are up in arms, with one head teachers' union threatening a lawsuit, on the basis that the examiners (or the government) have moved the goalposts.  They are apparently appalled that some students have been awarded lower grades than their teachers had led them to expect, especially in key subjects such as English. Well, if teachers knew exactly how their students were going to perform, there wouldn't be much sense in holding the exams, would there?  It's hard to escape the conclusion that the teachers see the exam results less as evidence that their pupils have been educated to the appropriate level, and more as a piece of ego gratification for themselves.

I don't want to come across as a grumpy old man here -- no more than usual, at any rate -- and I certainly don't want to dis the kids, who can only take the exams that are put in front of them.  However, when I read that at one school,  three students achieved A* grades in 13 GCSE subjects, I have to think something is amiss.  Delving back into my old high school year books, I find that most people even in the most academic class achieved between 5 and 7 passes -- that's just passes, not top grades -- at O-level, the precursor of today's GCSEs.

No school would have dreamed of forcing students to attempt 13 subjects back then, but then again, the exams were a bit different.  You commonly had to take two 3-hour exams to get one O-level.  There were no multiple choice papers, and no open book exams. But for those who eventually moved on to higher education,  there were also none of the remedial English and maths courses that even the best universities are finding it necessary to offer these days, a development that you'd think high school teachers might feel rather ashamed about.  The kids aren't getting dumber, but I'm not nearly so sure about the teachers.