Farewell, Modular GCSEs

[Belinda]

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[Tree]

i agree belinda the kids have little choice in the types of exam thay take and we should praise them more for what they achieve rather than tellin them it's all dumbed down and easy in comparison to our day.

[guest43]

Yes but...Only the top 25% of students used to take O Levels and there was a cutoff of (I think) 20% who could get an A grade. In other words only 5% of each year could get an A grade and now, well in my DD school (and I am sure in yours) there are subjects where regularly over 80% of students receive an A or A* at GCSE.

I think this has led to a generation of students and their parents who are delusional about their ability.

Whilst Michael Gove is an unfortunate character and I would generally automatically assume him to be speaking pillocks, he is in fact right in many ways. I do think overall our whole educational system is broken and is undoubtedly a contributing factor in our economy (outside the London honeypot) collapsing about our ears.

[Looking for help]

Whilst Michael Gove is an unfortunate character and I would generally automatically assume him to be speaking pillocks, he is in fact right in many ways. I do think overall our whole educational system is broken and is undoubtedly a contributing factor in our economy (outside the London honeypot) collapsing about our ears.

This is a global economic crisis. If what you have said is true, it suggests that the education system in every country of the world is broken. So we are not alone then

[tokyonambu]

Whilst Michael Gove is an unfortunate character and I would generally automatically assume him to be speaking pillocks, he is in fact right in many ways. I do think overall our whole educational system is broken and is undoubtedly a contributing factor in our economy (outside the London honeypot) collapsing about our ears.

This is a global economic crisis. If what you have said is true, it suggests that the education system in every country of the world is broken. So we are not alone then

If you believe that the UK economy outside London's financial sector only started collapsing since the global credit crunch, then I can only assume you live in the 020 dialling code. Labour followed the Tories in presiding over the total collapse of the UK manufacturing sector, using tax revenues on the financial sector to build a burgeoning public sector which provided jobs to replace manufacturing. I worked in a factory that manufactured more than 50% of the UK's broadband equipment: all of that equipment is now manufactured overseas, mostly in China, and the skills are scattered to the four winds. Gordon Brown came round the factory, and sneered at the idea of manufacturing. Other European countries have industries, because they insisted that Chinese companies trade fairly; the UK didn't, because the financial sector would always be so profitable that dirty metal-bashing didn't matter.

Now the Tories talk about "a balanced economy" as the tax revenues from the financial sector dry up. Shame they didn't think of that rather sooner, eh?

[Looking for help]

If you believe that the UK economy outside London's financial sector only started collapsing since the global credit crunch, then I can only assume you live in the 020 dialling code.

You assume wrongly, then

I am a realist, and an accountant, and can see what has happened both here and in the global economy, and am not deluded by claims that this has been caused by the labour government's mismanagement of the economy. Mrs Thatcher destroyed the manufacturing base of this country many moons ago, and pieces have been rebuilt, where they could be including the financial services, but we have a hole here, and the education system is not to blame, but then I think you know that tokyonambu, you are just encouraging debate

[phaedra]

Whatever the deficiencies of the education system in the UK, (and I see a great deal of good work going on) it is also true that I do not know of another country where educationists feel that their system, given a bit of tweaking, is just about right. There is doubt and dissatisfaction, together with plans and hopes for change, in all the countries I have visited in an educational capacity, or worked in.

[daughter]

I would like to wholeheartedly agree with all that Belinda has to say!

My DD's work hard for their grades - a lot harder than DH or I did (and do better!), the content is more difficult (I am sure there will be some exceptions) at both A level and GCSE. Without a doubt teaching is way better and so are resources whether it be text books or internet sites ... KHAN academy is fab!

The only real difference is the fact that the curriculum/subject specifications do seem to be a lot tighter. I don't mean this as in less but it is possible to have a fairly clear view of what you can and can't be expected to know. e.g. in sciences I believe the exam/curriculum content is greater than "our" day but the students have a much clearer idea of what they are meant to know.

Well done to all our DC in whatever grades/qualifications they are getting and please lets not devalue their achievements.

[laurash]

Totally agree with Belinda et al on this matter. I sat O levels in 1976 and frankly the quality of teaching in no way measured up to that at my Ds's school. Admittedly I am speaking from personal experience but as someone who went to a comprehensive school followed by university and later to post-graduate study, I feel that I went through a pretty typical school in the state system at the time . In general teaching was poor with few opportunities to practise past papers and no feedback given to help improve. Teachers merely delivered the curriculum and expected pupils to do as well as they could. I am so impressed nowadays with how much more pupils have to learn and how much more depth they cover. We learned facts by rote and regurgitated them in a 2 hour exam. We did no practical science assessments and everything relied upon the final exam and one's ability to ' cram' . Most modular GCSE's now seem to have at least 4 hours' worth of examination/ controlled assessment and many have more. I struggle to see how the 'O' level system can be compared in any way to the current system. My DS is now obliged to ' think' much more than I had to. We were all told that we didn't have to start ' thinking' until 'A' levels !!

Although he will be the last year to take modular GCSE's , I have found that the need to keep on top of his work makes my DS focus far more than I did at school. I seem to remember two pretty ' lazy' years and a final push for a couple of weeks.......

It seems to be common practice now to denigrate children's achievements at GCSE and A level; to hark back endlessly to the ' good old' past . Perhaps some people need to feel that their old 'C' grade at 'O' level really was an A. I certainly don't remember an A needing 90% ; in my day an A was 70% and above.

In my school the top performing girl in my class achieved 6 A's and 2 B's and got a First from Manchester. Most of us achieved a balance of A's, B's and C's and ALSO went to university .