OFFICIALS who were accused of a “ludicrous dumbing down” of a Shakespeare test for 14-year-olds have been criticised again by teachers for setting questions that have no bearing on the plays.
This year’s national curriculum Shakespeare paper, which was supposed to be related to Macbeth, instead asked teenagers to dispense advice in the form of an agony aunt. The question was worth 20 per cent of the marks for the entire English test taken by secondary school students.
The test was set by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which was condemned by English teachers last year for setting a question on Henry V that simply asked students to write about people they admired.
Another, on Twelfth Night, told teenagers that Malvolio was a character who did not like people to enjoy themselves, then asked them to write a speech for school assembly on banning chips from the canteen menu.
The latest paper emerged as Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary, was emphasising the need for a renewed emphasis in schools on traditional academic standards.
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He said: “We do need to be eternally vigilant that, at all levels, standards are constantly maintained or raised, and that extends to ‘traditional’ standards, such as grammar, spelling and algebra, just as much as any other.”
Schools chose to study either Macbeth, Henry V or Twelfth Night for this year’s Shakespeare test, the same plays as those examined in 2003. The question for students who had been studying Macbeth began: “In Macbeth, Banquo warns Macbeth about the Witches’ influence.”
It then asked them to imagine that they were giving advice to readers of a young people’s magazine and to respond to the following request: “I have recently moved school and made some new friends. I like spending time with them, but my form tutor thinks my work is suffering. What should I do?” A QCA spokeswoman said the question was “designed to have a thematic link to the Shakespeare test”.
Pupils were marked for their writing skills in the 30-minute paper but were not expected to show any knowledge of the play. A second 45-minute section of the Shakespeare paper, worth 18 per cent of the marks, assessed their understanding of two scenes from the play, which were printed on the paper and which schools were told about a year in advance.
One head teacher described it as “absolutely gobsmacking in its incoherence”. She said: “This was the only question on the paper and that’s how they expected to test our pupils and the work of our teachers on Shakespeare.”
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Bethan Marshall, a lecturer in education at King’s College London, and spokeswoman for the London Association of Teachers of English, described the paper as “feeble”, saying: “It has absolutely nothing to do with Macbeth or Shakespeare. This is just about the only proper piece of literature that students are required to study at Key Stage 3 and the test just downgrades Shakespeare completely.”
Ministers have set a target for schools to get 75 per cent of teenagers to reach the expected standard in English this year, from 67 per cent in 2003. But they were forced to delay publication of the results from 600,000 14-year-olds last week because of complaints from schools about errors in marking the test.
Mr Clarke has already ordered the QCA to revise the Shakespeare test after it introduced the two-part format last year to widespread criticism from English teachers. Pupils were previously expected to write a single 75-minute essay based on scenes from their chosen play. However, next year’s test will be just 45 minutes long and Shakespeare will contribute just 18 per cent of the overall marks for English at the age of 14.
The QCA has shortened the paper by moving the writing test to another part of the English exam and telling schools that the question “will no longer be linked to Shakespeare”. The revised format for 2005 is the same as the one proposed by the QCA in 2002, which was vetoed by Estelle Morris, then Education Secretary, because it reduced the time spent on Shakespeare.
When Mr Clarke called on the QCA to review the Shakespeare test last year, a spokesman at the Department for Education and Skills said that there was “no question at all of downgrading its importance in the curriculum”.
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Dr Marshall said the QCA had reduced Shakespeare’s significance within the overall English test at 14. The emphasis on assessing particular scenes meant that schools had no incentive to ensure that students read the whole play. Mr Clarke, writing in yesterday’s Observer, was also critical of the decision by the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance to press ahead with abolition of its GCSEs and A levels in Greek and Latin.
The Times disclosed last week that the exam board had rejected a plea from Stephen Twigg, the Schools Minister, to reconsider.