Apparently, exams are getting easier. What a nightmare! It's funny as well, you know, because my lovely wife has sat her A2 exams this year. She's incredibly intelligent, having got three offers to do Dentistry (her first choice is King's College London, hence my new location!), and has worked her arse off every day to do the absolute best she can do - often working for 6, sometimes up to 8 hours a day.
I haven't seen her much since she started her A levels due to the incredible effort she has put into everything, which is fine - schoolwork comes first. What is surprising, however, is the news that all the exams in this country are ridiculously easy - thanks for that one, Michael Gove.
In order to redress the balance and return to the golden age of impossible exams, the impressively unintelligent Mr Gove has decided that the best thing to do is reintroduce O Levels and CSEs (Certificate of Secondary Education). For those not in the know, O Levels and CSEs were abolished (ironically by the Tories) in 1988 and replaced with modern GCSEs.
So what's the difference? Traditionally, O Levels were sat by more capable students, who you'd probably expect to achieve grades A* - B in equivalent GCSEs, and CSEs where sat by not-so-academic students, broadly equivalent to the Foundation tier in modern GCSEs where the highest achievable grade is a C.
So far, so similar. It is a blatantly tiered system, which is similar to most GCSEs which offer at least 2 tiers, higher (A* - C) and foundation (C - G), which Mathematics offering a mid-way Intermediate tier (B - E). The difference, however, is in the representation - if someone sat a foundation maths paper and achieved a C, there is nowhere on the GCSE certificate that specifically states it was foundation tier, as only the subject and grade are noted. That means that their C grade is technically equal with someone like me who sat the higher tier and also achieved a C, which is probably about right. The point is, that person who sat the foundation tier is not disadvantaged because of it and, if anything, it gives them a better chance at doing well as the paper is inline with their abilities.
Under the proposed system, children would be sorted into the O Level/CSE groups at 14. Currently, entries for tiered exams can be amended at any point - if a child suddenly starts pulling their socks up and does really well in maths, they might be bumped up from intermediate to higher to give them a better chance of fully realising their potential. With the proposed divide at 14, kids in the CSE groups wouldn't have a chance of transferring to the O level as they would be stuck on their particular course. Undoubtedly, those with CSEs would be shut out from the top Russell Group universities like Oxbridge et al, and university would once again be reseved for the elite. CSE students would be declaring on their CVs that their qualifications were CSEs and not O levels, which could further disadvantage them work-wise.
I don't know why I was so shocked to hear about this to be honest, as it really is typical Tory policy - university for the rich, menial jobs for the poor. Keep the poor squashed down as far as possible to let the privately educated 'cream of the crop' claim their rightful places at Oxford and Cambridge. Coming from the man who decided that every school needed bibles (newsflash: the unbelievably annoying Gideons already have youth indoctrination covered, thanks), it is extremely unsurprising to hear him dismissing modern qualifications as crap in favour of the elite public schools that put him where he is today.
If these plans go ahead, thousands of children will be disadvantaged and pushed further into poverty. Education is a right, not a privilege, and kids in this country deserve to be given a chance to grow into their studies and do well. We should be praising our high achieving students for working hard and doing a damn good job, not saying 'of course you did well - that exam was easy!'.
To all the candidates in this country who have finished or are sitting their GCSEs or AS/A2 levels at the moment, I wish you all the best of luck. Do yourselves a favour and ignore the deluge of stupid politicians whining about exam standards; enjoy the result of your hard work and let them bleat on with themselves. One day we might even have intelligent people running this country; stranger things have happened.
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