Ohh, things that bug me...
Aug. 14th, 2003 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lady_t_220Record A-Level results spark a Row... are exams being dumbed down?
My answer...
Let's look at it this way. You, as a govornment, want a certain (unrealistic) proportion of your country to be educated to A-level standard. That means you have to get more of them to college. By default, a proportion of these people will be folks who, 20, 30 years ago would have gone to the local comp and ended up getting a vocational job rather than sitting exams.There is a reason for this. Because these are people for whom higher education is not neccessary. They don't really have any interest in it, it's not the right path for them.
That and some of them are just plain freaking dumb.
So you take all these people who, formerly, would not have bothered to sit A-levels and you make them take exams.
They will, unsurprisingly, not do so well.
Intellectual subjects are not everyone's cup of tea. That's fine and dandy by me... learn to become a plumber or a carpenter or a Tv repairman or whatever the fuck you want. You don't need deeply-analysed Chaucer for that.
Except, well, the gov't think you do, but then what do they know? We only voted for them because we didn't have any viable alternatives.
But back to my point.
Now, after the exams are taken and they've all been marked and graded, the examining bodies sit down and decide whether the grade boundaries were set too high or too low. Part of this decision is made by knowing the percentage of people that failed. A percentage unnatrually skewed by all these people who, formerly, wouldn't have been taking the exam in the first place.
Now, if that percentage is too high for the govornment set expectations (expectations set way the hell back before they started making everyone sit the papers, regardless of ability) the exam bodies have to scoot all the grade boundaries down because, obviously, the exam must have been too hard or something. *rolls eyes*
Then they look again and realise that, actually... that means too many people get A's and they can't have that because people will start accusing them of dumbing down. So they smoosh the top part back up again a little, stretching out the middle.
Of course, what this means is that the exams aren't exactly getting easier, but it IS getting easier to pass them, even if you screw up the paper. Heck, if your coursework gades are good enough in some subjects, you can totally fail to turn up for the paper and sctill pass your exam.
It is, in all honesty, a very stupid situation.
But, further it goes, because the gov't has this insane idea that it wants 50% of the population to make it to University.
BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
*falls over laughing at that one*
Christ, a degree is already pretty much worthless unless you manage to get into one of the really well-respected Unis. It won't get you a job like it did 30 years ago. All it'll get you now is a really massive overdraft.
And for why...?
Because all those plumbers and carpenters and TV repairmen are becoming piss-poor sociologists and computer technicians and "engineers" who can't weld and are, pretty much, uemployable. The system doesn't seem to allow for vocational education for young people. It doesn't seem to want you to be practical, because it's so hell-bent on making you sit cerebral exams.
And you know what?
We have a national shortage of people wanting to become plumbers and electricians and decorators and carpenters that is so endemic it's got to the point where the govornment has to offer financil incentives to get people to train.
*looks at the gov't*
You know if you'd offered that as an option at 16 when people were technically done with school, you might not be having this problem.
My answer...
Let's look at it this way. You, as a govornment, want a certain (unrealistic) proportion of your country to be educated to A-level standard. That means you have to get more of them to college. By default, a proportion of these people will be folks who, 20, 30 years ago would have gone to the local comp and ended up getting a vocational job rather than sitting exams.There is a reason for this. Because these are people for whom higher education is not neccessary. They don't really have any interest in it, it's not the right path for them.
That and some of them are just plain freaking dumb.
So you take all these people who, formerly, would not have bothered to sit A-levels and you make them take exams.
They will, unsurprisingly, not do so well.
Intellectual subjects are not everyone's cup of tea. That's fine and dandy by me... learn to become a plumber or a carpenter or a Tv repairman or whatever the fuck you want. You don't need deeply-analysed Chaucer for that.
Except, well, the gov't think you do, but then what do they know? We only voted for them because we didn't have any viable alternatives.
But back to my point.
Now, after the exams are taken and they've all been marked and graded, the examining bodies sit down and decide whether the grade boundaries were set too high or too low. Part of this decision is made by knowing the percentage of people that failed. A percentage unnatrually skewed by all these people who, formerly, wouldn't have been taking the exam in the first place.
Now, if that percentage is too high for the govornment set expectations (expectations set way the hell back before they started making everyone sit the papers, regardless of ability) the exam bodies have to scoot all the grade boundaries down because, obviously, the exam must have been too hard or something. *rolls eyes*
Then they look again and realise that, actually... that means too many people get A's and they can't have that because people will start accusing them of dumbing down. So they smoosh the top part back up again a little, stretching out the middle.
Of course, what this means is that the exams aren't exactly getting easier, but it IS getting easier to pass them, even if you screw up the paper. Heck, if your coursework gades are good enough in some subjects, you can totally fail to turn up for the paper and sctill pass your exam.
It is, in all honesty, a very stupid situation.
But, further it goes, because the gov't has this insane idea that it wants 50% of the population to make it to University.
BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
*falls over laughing at that one*
Christ, a degree is already pretty much worthless unless you manage to get into one of the really well-respected Unis. It won't get you a job like it did 30 years ago. All it'll get you now is a really massive overdraft.
And for why...?
Because all those plumbers and carpenters and TV repairmen are becoming piss-poor sociologists and computer technicians and "engineers" who can't weld and are, pretty much, uemployable. The system doesn't seem to allow for vocational education for young people. It doesn't seem to want you to be practical, because it's so hell-bent on making you sit cerebral exams.
And you know what?
We have a national shortage of people wanting to become plumbers and electricians and decorators and carpenters that is so endemic it's got to the point where the govornment has to offer financil incentives to get people to train.
*looks at the gov't*
You know if you'd offered that as an option at 16 when people were technically done with school, you might not be having this problem.
