27th April 2012 13:08
By Blue Tutors
What are A Levels for?
The debate raging in the press this week (04/04/2012) has certainly highlighted this question. While Education Secretary, Michael Gove, wishes to give universities say in how the A level courses are examined as well as the content, teachers’ unions are questioning their right and their interests as well as their capabilities. Mary Bousted, leader of the ATL teachers' union, accused the government of acting on a "whim" rather than on evidence.
"Of course universities have a useful role to play in deciding what should be tested at A level, but A levels need to test more than just the ability to go to university," said Dr Bousted.
There does seem to be rather a presumption that University academics know about A level teaching and I’m just not sure that’s the case. While they may know about those students who make it to University, whether capable of undergraduate study or not as they claim, they surely know very little about the percentage of students who do not make, nor wish to make it, to University to continue their education.
But leading head teacher Anthony Seldon, in charge of Wellington College, warmly welcomed the proposals - and called for a more demanding approach to essay writing.
"Much academic rigour and zest has been lost in schools over the past 25 years. Even those with A* grades know remarkably little about physics, geography or history, for example," he said, which is surely a terrible, and shocking, admission to make regarding our academic system. Whoever controls the development of A levels this must definitely be addressed. While a 2 year part time course cannot hope to instill huge amounts of knowledge into a pupil, knowing ‘remarkably little’ about a subject while still being able to attain an exceptional A* grade needs to be a thing of the past.