It's official - GCSEs are too easy - and it's all our fault!

[Amber]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/ed ... oards.html

[Looking for help]

Wait a minute, it is only a month to go till results day, the newspapers love these stories at this time of year, making sure our children know that after all their hard work their As are all a meaningless waste of time.

I tend to agree that Science GCSE is too easy, but hate that the press love to make our children feel that their efforts were pointless

[sherry_d]

What I find a bit sad is the fact that depsite GCSE getting easy there is still around 35% of school not getting the 30% government target of 5 GCSE.

[T12ACY]

What I find a bit sad is the fact that depsite GCSE getting easy there is still around 35% of school not getting the 30% government target of 5 GCSE.

This almost makes me feel that the 'old fashioned' CSE and O Levels were a better system. To test all chidren with such a vast range in their abilities with a single type of exam is bound to make those who find exams more challenging feel like failures if they are 'soooo easy' when they get a C (which is not dreadful and around a third of DC don't even get this high a grade), and to devalue the A's and A*'s for the more able is quite disappointing for those young people.

Furthermore I know in our experience there was an enormous step up from GCSE to A Level which leads some DC into a false sense of security in the amount of effort needed. DS1 gave barely any effort to get his A* in Maths and 8 A's (he got 3 B's too, but tried for these as his teachers predicted he would be lucky to get C's and would most likely get D's ).

[MasterChief]

If this is our fault, imagine what will happen when parents run the schools

[dinah]

I do believe that when governments proclaim that they have proved they are successful because exam results have improved they are playing us for fools.The Telegraph article quite rightly points the finger at the publishing industry which is unchecked and boardering on legalised cheating.There is barely a subject left which doesn't have a book which will tell you how to get an A grade if you enough common sense.Good exam results keep voters happy and keep unemployment down for a few years.There is no sense in maintaining an illusion that most people are academic and no reason for it either.Until we truly accept that all skills are useful and valuable we will continue to make our children jump through pointless hoops and end up with a watered down academia and no plumbers, no electricians , no actors , no dancers and all the other wonderful people that make ours lives better.There are only a few people in any generation that are truly academic and they have a place but they are no better and no worse than than any other person in terms of value to society

[Freya]

hear hear - great post Dinah