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19 June 2006

Exams really are getting easier!

I know I'm not alone in thinking that in recent years GCSE exams have been getting progressively easier, resulting in an impressive pass rate and a Government able to gloat that Tony Blair's 1997 three priorities "Education, Education and Education" have been fulfilled. Of course teachers and the Education authorities like to tell us that the kids are just working much harder and the exams are not getting easier. I was prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I have just had the opportunity of speaking to a girl who has been taking GCSEs and she is astounded at how easy they are, and in no way representative of the intensity of work she has had to put in during the lead up to the exams. She feels she is not being tested in any meaningful way, and that any certificates gained will not be worth the paper they are written on. So there you are ... if the students are saying they are getting too easy, then they are! What is the point?

1 comment:

Larjmarj said...

What's the point? The same point that the shrub has here in the U.S. An uneducated populace will not question it's leaders. Also, I don't know if it's the same in the U.K. but the amount of tax dollars received by a school system are based on test scores. The better the scores the more $$$ in the city budget.