Is there a more pointless exercise costing millions in the UK? Students have to stay in education until 18 anyway. Has anyone been asked for proof of GCSE’s? I doubt it! Politicians are not willing to take on the old fogeys who yearn for O Levels and Enid Blyton stories! Whilst I think all students should achieve competency in Maths and English, they need different skills than memory tests – we are now in year 27PG. AI is not going to disappear. Climate change will require new adaptations in many fields of study and life. So why have we put yet another generation through the stress of pointless exams? Most children will sit approximately 100 externally marked exam papers to achieve levels that their teachers could predict in a less stressful and much cheaper way. Ahh – it is not just the old fogeys – there is a huge amount of money paid out by schools to the exam boards £500+ per student many comprehensive schools will have an exam budget in excess of £50000 plus at least 2 staff to administer, and the cost of invigilators.
A pointless waste of time in my opinion – but it is much worse than that. Exams are designed not only for children to pass, but to fail. The press and schools will concentrate on pass rates (67.4% is quoted) – that means 32.6% have failed. That does not make these children failures in life, just failures in an antiuated exam system. We also know that parents pay for extra tuiton to cheat the system. And I have not got on to A Levels yet!