Education in this country is a disgrace – the yearly charade of A-levels is a distraction from poor teaching
ANOTHER year, another round of A-level results – and with it the usual agony and ecstasy.
For every successful student pictured jumping for joy, there were those, like Dylan, who opened his results live on GMB only to find he hadn’t achieved the B grades he was hoping for.
Reporter Pip Tomson tried her very best to paper over the excruciating on-air awkwardness, but Dylan was not alone.
Results day was an even more anxiety-inducing this year as exam graders were told to mark papers more harshly and pupils warned to brace for “disappointment”.
This has been all in the name of tackling “grade inflation” — and rightly so.
Last year, a record 45 per cent of papers were graded A or A* as exams were scrapped because of Covid and teachers were asked to dish out grades instead.
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This is compared with 25 per cent achieving the top grades before the pandemic.
And a similar pattern has emerged in our once-respected universities, which are now handing out double the proportion of first-class degrees than they were a decade ago.
But there is a deeper problem — the handing out of top marks willy-nilly and the façade that pupils are performing ever so well is nothing but smoke and mirrors.
The annual charade that is A-level results day, with its rolling images of happy students opening their envelopes and ministers wheeled out to congratulate them, is nothing but an illusion.
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The reality is that the quality of education for pupils in this so-called first-world country is a disgrace.
We spend more per pupil on secondary education than countries such as Finland and Japan, yet their students still manage to outperform ours.
We don’t even do as well as Poland in international league tables for maths, English and science, despite the fact it invests nearly 40 per cent less per pupil and has an economy a fifth the size of ours.
Only around half of 16-year-olds got a good pass in maths and English last year — and God forbid you’re a poor pupil.
For that beleaguered group, an eye-watering seven in ten fail to get a good pass.
And if you’re a white, working-class boy your prospects are almost too grim for words.
The plight of our teenage pupils is enough to make the stiff-upper-lipped among us shed a tear of despair.
Which makes the response — or more precisely the lack of response — from those in charge even more shameful.
The Government has taken a nothing-to-see-here approach for far too long. In its response to this year’s results, it took to parroting that Thursday’s results were higher than pre-pandemic levels and that record numbers of 18-year-olds will be going to uni.
This, it suggested, was a cause for celebration and testament to the robustness of our education system.
Pull the other one!
No amount of A* grades, university places and first-class degrees can hide the truth — that the taxpayer is getting abysmal value for money. For the near-£100billion price tag forced upon the taxpayer, the return on investment is criminal.
I am one of the “survivors” of our broken state school system.
The proportion of children on free school meals in my old primary continues to be 70 per cent higher than the national average.
CAN’T HIDE THE TRUTH
It trails by double digits behind England’s average for pupils meeting expected standards in reading, writing and maths.
In the year I collected my A-levels my college’s pass rate had dipped to its lowest in more than three decades.
Not long after, figures showed that the average grade for pupils taking A-levels was a D — not enough to get you on to any degree course worth more than the paper it’s printed on.
I know what a failing school looks like, because I spent my entire school life in them. I am one of the lucky few who have made something of myself. But this was in spite of the system, not because of it.
The problem with some schools is that they are crippled by low standards, with virtually no interest in discipline and no sense of aspiration.
Bad behaviour is not unusual in classrooms.
Teachers are little respected by parents nor pupils, and some put their own profession into disrepute by doing too little teaching and too much indoctrination.
Some parents don’t support their children, while other pupils are brought up in chaotic homes.
Our national curriculum is a joke. Our universities are embarrassing.
Too many degree courses are futile endeavours, no longer guaranteeing anything other than decades of debt repayment.
Whoever Boris Johnson’s successor is, they should grab this behemoth by the horns.
We need to learn from countries that consistently perform better than us.
Higher standards, classroom discipline and high expectations should be carved into the very DNA of our education system, for every child, rich or poor.
The state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue.
If other poorer countries can get a grip of their education system, there is no excuse why “Great” Britain — one of the wealthiest, most prosperous nations there ever was — can’t do the same.
Dignity hire an insult
SCOTLAND has become a breeding ground for gender dogma.
“Gender-friendly nurseries” treat kids like sexless androids, schools let kids as young as four change gender without their parents’ consent, and the SNP are seeking to introduce a legally recognised third gender sigh.
So when I heard that Scotland has become the first country to offer free period products to girls and women, I was rather pleased.
Only women menstruate – so this move was a big win for females, right
Wrong – we’re talking about Scotland, so my pleasure was short-lived.
It turns out that they have given the job of advocating this policy to . . . a MAN.
Jason Grant will lead campaigns across schools and the community as “Period Dignity Officer”.
I can’t be the only one who thinks a man having this role is utterly creepy and quite offensive.
The Scottish government can’t be trusted to get anything right on gender.
Hardworking Lady Louise sows seeds of success
A SECRET recording emerged of Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss suggesting that Britain’s work culture was one of not wanting to put in hard graft.
Many people will agree that there’s too much laziness about – and nowhere more so than among our spoiled young people, who often despair at having to lift a finger.
But clearly that isn’t the case for the Queen’s granddaughter Lady Louise Windsor, who, at 18, has been earning £6.83 an hour working at a garden centre over the summer
Some spoiled brats I know wouldn’t even get out of bed for that.
This is despite her living in a £30million mansion, with enough dosh in the family coffers that if she didn’t lift a finger her entire life, she would probably end up richer than 99 per cent of us.
After years of some royals not exactly covering themselves in glory, it’s fantastic to see one quietly going about their business while remaining down to earth and dutiful.
She clearly takes after her grandmother.
Party girl no bad Fin
JOURNALISTS are obsessed with asking political leaders what “the naughtiest thing they’ve ever done” is.
When Theresa May said hers was trespassing through fields of wheat as a child, she was ridiculed for being too out of touch and “uncool” .
It seems you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t for female leaders because the Finnish Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, 36, is accused of being, well, too “cool” and too down with the kids.
A video has emerged of her dancing and singing with friends at a boozy house party.
This has triggered a backlash from her opponents.
But if you’re going to elect a millennial for a Prime Minister, you can’t then be horrified when she does millennial things.
OK, the video doesn’t paint her in the most dignified light, but Marin has insisted she did nothing wrong and has the same right to party as everyone else.
Too right, Sanna. Fight for your right to party.
Beware CV lies
A BUILDER who lied on his CV, claiming he had a PhD to bag himself top NHS jobs over a decade, has been ordered to pay back nearly £100,000.
In 2017 he was jailed after pleading guilty to fraud.
Jon Andrewes called himself “Doctor” and pocketed nearly £650,000 after telling tall tales about his education and job background.
This will make the one in ten who admit lying on their CV sweat (Something tells me the real figure is far higher).
Not only do CV embellishers face embarrassment, they could have to hand over cash earned, which could be seen as proceeds of fraud.
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But it may not be the end of the world for Andrewes.
When he gets out of jail he may very well be able to land a top acting job.