The GCSE exam debacle continues. Many pupils who had been expecting a C grade were given a D as a result of the grade boundary changes made half way through an academic year!
Students are to be ‘allowed‘ to resit the exam instead of having their grades automatically brought in line with January 2012 results says £138,000 / annum Glenys Stacey.
This is yet another sordid example of public sector highly paid self important bean counters getting it completely wrong. They choose to dump the solution onto the teachers again! That’s the thinking of these overpaid quango dumbos! So then – who is to tell her she has got it wrong?
Where is the Cameron / Clegg leadership? No effin-where – that’s where! *1
The real problem here is the the last 40 years of GCSE “Nobody must fail” modular rubbish, grade inflation. The passmark in GCSE maths is now 16%, did you know that?; The the idiots in charge should be redeployed as bean pickers.
Here is some guidance for Dave & his dummy Gove:-
- A pass mark is about 60 % – it shows that the student was there and listening but not really that bothered or capable (Of course exceptions have to be made where the student is suffering emotional trauma etc. The Head Teacher’s decision …)
- An A is 80%
- An A* is 90%+
- A fail is 50% or less (harsh? NO – reality!)
The blitheringly obvious things to do are these:-
Now:-
- Regrade the daft results back to the silly grades everyone was expecting – it is simply the cheapest, quickest and fairest way out of the mess.
- Sack Offqual idiots with no pension rights and no golden handshake! Isabel Nisbet received £63,000 when she decided to leave in 2011 – why? (that’s another can of worms …)
Short term:- (1-12 months)
- Disband Ofqual
- Form just one public sector exam production and grading authority, thus avoiding the current bribery and corruption of competing exam provision companies “guaranteeing to make your school look good in the performance tables”
Longer term (5-10 years)
- Revert to GCE exams (no more modules)
- Revive the technical schools idea that went along with the Comprehensive School idea back in the 50s (but never implemented) – by all means make skill based exams modular – that actually makes sense.
… you get the picture – far more long term strategic thinking needs to be done but NOT by short-termist party politicians …for a more sane solution please see meBook
*1 Our Dave is too busy removing the embarrassing former ministers; Caroline Spelman, Andrew Landsley, Baronness Warsi et al and replacing them with the next tranche of useless party political hopefuls hopeless appointees.
