Making The Grade

‘ONE thing that the new Politics Idol will quickly learn is that common sense is a currency in short supply in the Houses Of Parliament.

‘Look here, Barry! A copy of Chekhov’s short stories’

After all, common sense dictates that if more and more people get university degrees, then all that will happen is that we will have more and more people doing jobs for which they are overqualified.

Common sense also dictates that if more and more people get A-grades in their GCSEs and A-levels, then the exams themselves will become increasingly worthless as a means of distinguishing pupils’ intelligence.

But common sense, as we know, is rarer than an appearance by Charles Kennedy and so it is we read this morning that both scenarios have come to pass.

The Telegraph, for instance, tells us that teachers think universities should introduce US-style aptitude tests to supplement A-levels.

And the Times reports that all plans to expand the number of university places will do is flood the job market with graduates who will not find jobs to repay their investment in higher education.

The paper quotes a book written by two leading political economists which reveals that 40% of recent graduates are in jobs that do not require degree-level training and that the starting salary for graduates actually fell last year.

We may have binmen who can extemporise on the virtues of 19th Century Russian literature, but they’ll still be emptying bins…’

Posted: 29th, March 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink