THE Prime Minister has told us (and he should know) that “Despite seven years of reform and record levels of investment . . . you meet young people with bags of talent and enormous ability and potential and the system has let them down.”
Of course it has. We persist in acceding to the beliefs of the Blairs, Milibands, Clarkes and their Whitehall paper-shufflers that, while you are at school, academic ability is of the greatest good. Once you have left school no one, except an academic, has the remotest interest in what your A levels are. What they want to know is whether you have intelligence, motivation, persistence, whether you can think, perhaps even have ideas, creativity, leadership.
A levels tell us none of these things. They tell us only if you were good at academic exams, which require mainly study, little thought, and which deal in theory rather than practical application.
Jonathan Langdale,
Tonbridge, Kent
System failure
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HAD I, as an old-fashioned teacher accustomed to close marking, been presented with Libby Purves’s article (“Good luck, kids: there’s more to life than A levels”, Comment, August 17), I would have covered it with approving ticks. She hits the nail on the head, as ever. Alice Miles, the next day, also tells us what we all know: that standards have slipped, and that this is built into the examination system. This is not a new phenomenon, but is worse now because of the preponderance in our schools of teachers too young to have been taught to respect academic rigour and scrupulous accuracy. This is not the fault of those teachers, but of the system which lets them loose on our children when they themselves have never been obliged to demonstrate a sound grasp of English.
For about 15 years I have found the A-level exam to be incapable of differentiating between the excellent and the average; I have also found myself teaching to a much lower general level because so little can be assumed to have been assimilated prior to sixth form. No wonder universities need to do remedial teaching; what a waste of time and resources.
M. A. Crew,
Wigton, Cumbria
Tried and tested
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WHATEVER the reasons advanced for the changes made to the grading of A levels around 1990, the time has surely come to revert to the former method. Prior to the change the top x per cent got an A grade, the next y per cent got a B grade, the next z per cent got a C grade, and so on; the percentages staying unchanged from year to year. This made sense as the intelligence of the nation’s children as a whole would not change.
I do not know the exact percentages, an A grade was probably 10 per cent and a B grade probably 20 per cent. The result was that universities could never be overwhelmed by too many applicants and could be sure that they had the best.
Ian Bremner,
Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire
You don’t fool me
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WITH the A-level pass rate rising for a 22nd consecutive year, one might conclude that if academic ability, as a manifestation of general intelligence, were representative of a perfectly natural system, with no a priori reason to expect a higher or lower measurement from one year to the next, the probability of such a long-term and persistent trend occurring would be a little less than one in four million.
The alternative explanation, of course, is that such a trend is the product of political engineering by successive governments to convince parents, universities, employers and overseas investors that this country is a nation of geniuses. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on one’s perspective, most businesses in the real world are not hoodwinked by such obvious manipulation of reality.
Joe Buchdahl,
Buxton, Derbyshire
Dreams on hold
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I READ with interest Libby Purves’s article relating to A levels, degrees and the shortcomings of the current education system. As a recent graduate myself (BA geography, Sheffield University) I feel that Ms Purves missed one crucial point. Many people attend university unsure of what their longer-term goals are. The greatest travesty regarding the introduction of fees is that I see a generation who, because of the burden of debt, are putting dreams on the back burner in order to take up “safe” jobs where one’s student loan will be paid off in less time.
I fear that those gifted enough to attend university — especially those institutions where fees are higher — are being forced into a world of “graduate employment”. A generation is emerging where the academically gifted are financially unable to pursue dreams. I can think of countless people I know; people who a decade ago might have set up a business or pursued that highly interesting but low-paid career who are setting out on a career path that they otherwise would not have considered. One just has to see how many people enter the safe world of teaching only to quit years down the line.
I was told that attending university opened doors. It does, but it also forces many people through doors they have no real desire to enter.
Jon Enoch,
Lincoln
In praise of success
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IT IS disappointing that A-level detractors are already in full voice decrying the high grades as evidence of “dumbing-down”. Universities and industry are quoted as having difficulties because the number of high grades being achieved does not allow them to differentiate between candidates for places or jobs. This is undoubtedly true, but surely they (particularly the universities) should recognise that this is not the purpose of examinations, merely a useful by-product.
Examinations exist objectively to assess performance against set learning targets.
Surely it is a justifiable aim to raise the level of achievement across the country, provided that objective standards of curriculum setting and examination marking can be maintained?
Although David Miliband, the Schools Minister, may cite the expected increase in A grades as a success for government policy and funding, he would do well to heed Libby Purves’s comment that too many of our young people will not find employment after a successful university degree course. I believe he is right, however, to praise the efforts of our schools, teachers and children, too.
Why is it so hard to praise success in the deserving? Do we not want to encourage successive generations to try to out-perform their predecessors? Actually, they already are.
Richard Fowler,
Harrogate
Grade inflation
I AM not surprised that Patricia Voute found that A-level examiners were classifying poor papers as showing a reasonable standard of knowledge (“Grade inflation exists: I should know, I was an examiner”, Comment, August 19). Having recently graduated from university, I am quite sure that this practice continues to much of higher education. There is a consensus among arts students that an ill-prepared essay will almost certainly pass. It is little surprise that employers seem largely uninterested in academic grades when recruiting graduates.
Tim Phillips,
t.j.phillips@blueyonder.co.uk
Tasting failure
WHEN I failed my A levels 11 years ago, I had to grow up very quickly. For the first time in my life I had to make decisions that would affect my future.
I think I made the right decision, to take a further year and resit the exams. The second time round I achieved grades that meant that the previously uninterested universities came knocking on my door. I learnt a lot about myself in that year. I tasted failure at a young age; not a bad thing, having seen people of my own age crumble when faced with it for the first time. I learnt that the world is an unforgiving place, and if you don’t pick yourself up and carry on, no one else will do it for you. Most of all I learnt to set my own goals and be happy when I achieved them.
So to all those who have just received their grades, it is not the end of the world if you don’t get the results you wanted. Take if from someone who knows.
Harriet Rich,
sparrowhawk22@onetel.com
Old-fashioned values
I AM involved from time to time in the recruitment of graduates into the accountancy profession. It is increasingly difficult to differentiate between students with identikit A and A* grades at school and 2:1 degrees from university, and there is insufficient time to interview all candidates. The job requires good written (and verbal) communication. Perhaps unsurprisingly, therefore, I tend to reject CVs that cross my desk with more than one spelling or grammatical error. Additionally, many of us recruiting undergraduates can and will distinguish between candidates whose parents or contacts found them work experience and those who have secured employment themselves, whether paid or unpaid. We can also distinguish between courses with a greater or lesser degree of intellectual rigour in their content and establishments which seem to be particularly generous in their degree awards.
It seems harsh on the youth of today to discover that the outside world values accuracy in spelling and English grammar when this has not been a priority at school, and they can be quite shocked by the strength of feeling here. I, for one, would prefer these values to be reintroduced into the GCSE and A-level gradings.
Jan Ellis,
jan.ellis@bakertilly.co.uk