Colin D Gordon

Oscar Wilde , the famous English playright & poet, once dismissed examinations as “pure humbug from beginning to end”. His fellow-novelist, E.M. Forster, however more realistically concluded that  “As long as learning is connected with earning, we must take the examination system seriously. If another ladder to employment was invented, much so-called education would disappear”. The millions of students in the UK and around the world currently battling through the examination season might agree with Wilde but know they have to produce good results. Some commentators say this is not a big problem in Britain.  Exams (in their opinion) are getting easier, so the pass rate is much higher and there is ‘rampant grade inflation’. Research by Durham University has indicated that someone who achieved just above a ‘D’ in 1988 would now score halfway  between an A & B. According to the Head of King Edward’s School in Birmingham, their 1898 entrance test would be too difficult for the equivalent applicant today. Among the questions was: ‘Multiply 642035 by 24506’(there were no calculators then). Last year, the Joint Council For Qualifications (JCQ) ruled that as from 2008 some GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) science papers should consist of  70% ‘low-demand questions’. This was promptly criticised by the University of  Buckingham  as a clear example of deliberately lowering standards.

The Schools Minister has responded to the ‘dumbing down’ debate by replacing the Qualifications & Curriculum Authority (QCA) with a new independent body whose role will be to make exams harder.  England’s biggest exam board – AQA – claims that this will produce a ‘grave injustice’ as more teenagers will fail their GCSEs. An additional complication (& embarrassment for the Government) is that students have been told there may be‘inaccuracies’ in the marking of their exam papers. In 2007 , nearly 22,000 in England, Wales & Northern Ireland had their GCSE and A – level grades changed after querying the results. There is also some concern at the rapid decline in the number of pupils learning languages at school. French is down to 29% (from 53% in 2001). German:12% (down from 22%). Spanish has remained constant at 8%.

British Universities have not, either, been immune to controversy. ‘The Independent’ newspaper reported recently that some lecturers are ‘turning a blind eye’ to cheating. An academic from the Russell Group of Universities told BBC News that degrees were being awarded to overseas students ‘who spoke almost no English’.. The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) fears that British degrees are losing their value in comparison to those in continental Europe. Their survey has found that the average UK student spends 12.7 hours on private study (down from 13.1 in 2006),.significantly fewer than their European counterparts, which – because degree courses here are also shorter –is putting the reputation of the country’s university qualifications at risk .OECD (Organisation For Economic Co-Operation & Development) figures have ranked Britain sixth out of 34 countries on graduates’employment prospects.

Meanwhile, there have been signs that UK authorities are attempting to clamp down on the more enthusiastic post-exam celebrations. Students at Oxford University (where they traditionally write their papers wearing a mortar-board, gown, black suit and white shirt) have been warned that the dons (professors) could use the Facebook website to obtain evidence of ‘unruly end-of-exam behaviour’. Extra police will be on duty across the nation in August when the school results are  released, especially if they are as good as (or better than) last year to pre-empt teenagers from ‘wreaking havoc’. Anglia University have taken this policy a step further by banning students from throwing their mortar-boards up into the air at graduation ceremonies. Its main pre-occupation appears to be the possible damage to the hats.

Comments are closed.