27th August 2010 9:00
By Harriet Boulding
This week saw GCSE pass rates improve across the country for the 23rd year in a row, prompting widespread criticism that the exams are too easy. Many teachers and tutors have expressed concern about the morale of students in the face of these comments, and point out that students should be commended for their hard work rather than have to endure comments that exams must be too easy. As an English tutor who teaches students who struggle with the subject, I agree with this point. My students work extremely hard at a subject which does not come naturally to them, and should be proud of their achievements.
However, as a tutor I also have an interest in our education system as a whole, and I have to agree that it may not be working that well. Alongside stories of record results come reports from think tanks, employers and universities which say that students are lacking the basic skills they need for employment and degree level study. One report out this week summarised in The Guardian states that teenagers are suffering from poor communication skills and short attention span more than ever before due to their constant interaction with technology. This includes video games, surfing the internet and texting, which apparently disengage students from longer term thought processes and get them out of the habit of writing properly.
In a statement issued by the admissions office at Cambridge University, Geoff Parks commented that whilst it is true that school exams are not preparing students for the rigor of university courses as well as they used to, we must not simply make exams harder. This, he argued, would have the effect of excluding many students from state schools who are now doing well enough in exams to consider higher education in a way that they would not have done in the past.
From a tutoring perspective, it seems that the bar for exam results has gone askew. I recall when B and C grades at GCSE were considered very good results, and ABB grades at A level would get a student into a top university. The obsession with A* grades at GCSE and now A level is not only preventing students from really enjoying and engaging with their subject, but it is also making it impossible for universities to make the right decisions. Our students should of course be proud of their GCSE results, but whilst we have a system in which over one fifth of papers are marked at A* or A, we have a problem.