8th November 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
The news that Kent Country County Council has plans to introduce a ‘tutor-proof’ 11+ test will have alarmed many parents hoping to send their children to selective schools in the area. Kent Council has released a statement saying that from 2014 they would introduce a more sophisticated assessment which would make the test less predictable, and therefore harder to prepare for. They cited concerns that wealthier families were paying for coaching for the tests which gives students an unfair advantage. Their principle concern is that they should be encouraging social mobility, and that students should all have an equal shot at performing well on the tests and getting into grammar schools. So is this something that tutors and parents should be worried about?
Simply, no it isn’t. As a private tutor I have no concerns about schools introducing a less predicable exam, and I applaud efforts to ensure that the test is fairer. The thing is, ‘coaching’ for exams which involves rote learning for predictable exam questions doesn’t do anyone any good, either the student or the school. Selective schools in Kent have complained that some students who are coached for the test are accepted and then find that they are unable to cope with the work, which damages their confidence and makes them miserable. It is absolutely necessary to get rid of tests for which the answers can me memorised, and from 2014 Kent schools will not be making practice papers available in their efforts to ensure that the nature of the tests will be new to those sitting it.
Good tuition is never about sourcing past papers and asking students to memorise model answers. Good tuition gives the student a chance to expand their abilities, build confidence with key skills and provides opportunities for students to test their knowledge in creative ways. Preparing students in this way means that they will be given the wider skills they need to do well on exams, seen or unseen. Unfortunately, students who receive this sort of tuition will still usually be more likely to do well on entrance exams than those at schools in poorer areas who do not have access to tuition. Whilst both schools and students ultimately benefit from introducing tests which cannot be rote-learned, the plans for new exams will not address the wider equality gap in our education system.