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That's good. Trust the Guardian to exaggerate! It would be interesting to see the equivalent paper from, say, 1970. I looked, but they all seem to be on paying sites.
What level would constitute a fail? (50/100? 60/100?)
Back in O level days you either passed or failed and coursework didn't count. The pass grades when I took these in 1973 were 1-5 (a few exam board used a letter system) and anything lower was fail. To get the lowest pass grade you had to score 40% I think. CSE's were graded 1-5 with 1 being equivilant to an O level but, again, I don't think coursework counted.
That approach was changed in the mid / late 80's with the introduction of GCSE's where coursework counted too. It had already started to change in further education before that as in the late 70's when I went back to education and started ONC and then HNC at technical college, assignments and phase tests counted toward your grade and the end of year paper was no longer the be all and end all. For me, pass or fail on the day suits perfectly as I am a firm believer that final exams are the only way to differentiate between "those than can and those that can't" in any subject.
I know there are people who may know a subject but are no good at exams, and thereby benefit from this continual assessment approach, but it means many people scrape through by constant retakes and / or copying other peoples assignments and gain an undeserved qualification. That may be seen by some as a harsh assessment but you have to think real world and wonder how useful people like that will be. Same as many here I saw a lot of people scrape through the courses I did who were totally useless day to day and couldn't solve a problem when put on the spot. I am sorry to say it but when the education sector began to go through big changes in the 80's, it's become more important for them to demonstrate a high pass rate rather than produce less but properly educated / trained students.
Moving on to the professional level, most chartered institutes award on final examination only and seem to want to protect the concept that a qualification should mean its holder has great competence. In that regard I applaud the fact that most only allow a finite number of attempts in the exams, so if you can't pass at 2nd or 3rd go you don't ever get the chance to try again. I am all for that as, for example, I don't want my health in the hands of someone who failed their professional exams six times in just the same way that I don't want my house to be designed by someone who doesn't understand structures and scraped a pass by hooking up with a better engineer at college and scoring well on assignment work.
It's more or less the approaching Victor Meldrew generation on here who has fathered or maybe "grandfathered" this "useless" youth. The education system that they're put into was not created by them. It was our generation that created it. If Grammar schools were watered down, it was by our generation or an older one. If a Craft College now calls itself a university it was our generation. The fact that teachers hardly have any time for pupils anymore as they are working nights and weekends on coursework and marking and OFSTED reviews is due to the education system which our generation put into place. The shortage of teachers is hardly surprising due to the low status over the last years which, thankfully, appears to be getting better now.
Isn't it a bit hard to put all of the blame on today's youth?
I remember when I was a lad, most of the mischief was group pressure or group bravery. As everyone, via their 'phones and Facebooks, is in contact with a group of some sort 24 hours a day it doesn't seem surprising that there is maybe more mischief about.
Taking into account society today in general (severe loss of productive jobs, massive reduction in status of engineering, massive hype concerning "portfolio managers" and the like, etc., etc.) I reckon we have got the youth which we created and deserved and, knowing quite a few teachers and ex-teachers, I don't think that that youth is all a bunch of bad eggs by any means.
The blame for the majority of the social woes within the UK at least stems from the "liberal" generation who were at university in the 1950-1960's in my opinion.
The blame for the majority of the social woes within the UK at least stems from the "liberal" generation who were at university in the 1950-1960's in my opinion.
Of course, it could also have been the Romans. I mean, whatever did they do for us?
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