Have exams been dumbed down?Nanny would have you believe not, in her view the increase in pass rates is due to her excellent educashunal policies and the genius of those who take the exams.
Errrmmm maybe not...
It seems that there is to be a new top A-level grade, the A*, which will mark out the highest flyers, and will require marks of at least 90%.
For why?
Simple, there is an increasing number of A grades being awarded each year.
The A* is intended to highlight the best candidates, without altering the standards required for the existing five A-level grades.
The government agrees with the QCA exams watchdog the grade boundary should be 90%.
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) had recommended that this new top-level grade should be reserved for students who had an aggregate score of at least 90% across the units of their A-level.
It seems that grade inflation is the reason for this new grade, around 25% of those who take the exams now achieve an A grade; this has made the selection process more difficult for university admissions officers.
John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, opposes the higher grade.
"I regret the introduction of A*
since it has the potential to
make a grade A second best."
Facts
1 We are not all the same intellectually
2 There are only a limited number of top jobs (eg nuclear physicist, brain surgeon) available
3 Only the best should be selected for these jobs
4 We cannot all be nuclear physicists
Like it or not, some people are less bright than others.
Erm Ken, the A* has been around for donkeys years. Did you mean something else?
ReplyDeleteFlip; he's talking about A levels. No A* there yet.
ReplyDeleteBTW, if nuclear physicist is such a top job, how com it's so poorly paid?
what's the pay of a job got to do with academic qualifications?
ReplyDeleteWe've been trying to persuade a friend of ours to apply to GCHQ for ages as that work would suit his talents. He's been declining because he'd take a pay cut from his current warehouse job (on the floor, not management)!
Here's a question of education - and food!
ReplyDeleteOpening a polystyrene contain of 6 eggs from ASDA supermarket a couple of days ago (for our offshore readers ASDA = Walmart, by ownership at least) I noticed that printed inside the lid was some information.
A little Lion symbol (egg marketing board stuff of old) a column of data giving the food value of eggs, another column of data giving an 'Egg Code' whatever that is (GCHQ stuff maybe?) and in between the two another column for allergy information warning me that the contents of the package contained eggs.
So, here is the education part of the question.
How many A* A-levels and degrees at First level does it take to decide that a box of clearly labels eggs, containing eggs, needs allergy information to advise the buyer that the eggs contain eggs?
Second education question, is there an even higher level of education requirement to make sure that the message is INSIDE the container (in rather small but just about readable print?
Extra marks awarded for discussing whether the internalisation of the warning message is wise because;
a) Good sales practice since before most people read it they will have purcased the good and taken them home and probably can't be arsed to return them ; OR
b) It is a legal requirement to provide the information but an embarrassingly stupid message so hiding it inside on the lid and printing it is almost unreadably small type face saves most peoplel from reading it and thinking what a stupid message it is - extra marks for including observations about the likely reading skills of the lardy consumers buying so many eggs; OR
c)The benefits to Politicians, Bureaucrats and the Legal Profession of extending laws that are sometimes valuable to a small number of people into areas where they seem to serve little purpose.
I will assume that all answers from correspondents with less than 2 degrees and a PHD carry little or no weight no matter how sensible they are.
Grant
Grant: - No real difference from the genius that demands that packets of salted peanuts carry the warning "May contain nuts"...
ReplyDeleteI have two degrees but only an MSc, so I guess my comment is valueless. :-(
Grant,
ReplyDeleteI confess to the necessary educational qualifications; unfortunately, I have no fucking idea what the answers to your questions are.
Does this make me super-intelligent or thick?