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Anorak News | All’s Well That Ends Well

All’s Well That Ends Well

by | 3rd, October 2003

‘THE Times reports that under new proposals to be announced today, pupils will be allowed to re-sit their A-level examinations “as often as they like”.

‘For 50% of your total marks, who’s this funny looking bloke?’

Great news for exam fans, of course, but the idea isn’t to everybody’s liking.

Inevitably, there have already been complaints that it will lead to a dumbing-down of standards.

“At a time when confidence in A-levels is very low, to say you will treat them like the driving test simply beggars belief,” said Shadow Education Secretary Damian Green.

Maybe so. Then again, there is something appealing about the idea that people could be stopped by the police any time if they display a lack of knowledge about their chosen subjects, and if necessary, forced to do a re-sit.

It certainly wouldn’t bode well for current students, most of whom will have already sailed through their controversial Shakespeare test.

This, you may recall, was the one that enabled pupils to gain more than half the marks without knowing anything at all about the Bard’s work.

One question asked pupils to write about people they admired. Another asked pupils to imagine that they were Malvolio and write a speech for assembly on why chips should be banned from the canteen.

The Times reports that the test is to be scrapped following criticisms from teachers, but it will still be in use next year, meaning that it will be included in the judgement of whether the Government has met its target for English standards.

Fingers crossed, eh?’



Posted: 3rd, October 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink