August hand-wringing and tail-wagging

Our national obsession with meaningless marks is hobbling any serious attempt to reform the UK education system.

There was an excellent start to the education pantomime season (rising standards; “oh yes they are...”, or dumbing down; “oh no they’re not...”) last Saturday by Peter Wilby in the Guardian. He wrote:

“The truth is that classifications and grades carry neither educational value nor useful information. They do not test a specific body of knowledge or skill. No serious qualification bothers with grading; they assure the public that professionals or skilled workers possess particular competencies. Degree classes and exam grades are rationing devices, regulating access either to the next stage of education or to professional occupations.

He went on to suggest that exam grades and degree classifications should be abolished and replaced by "achievement reports", detailing what students know, what skills they have acquired, whether they are better at theoretical than practical work, and so on. Incidentally, this all sounds pretty similar to Step 2 of Edge’s Six Steps for Change Manifesto.

Commenting on the inflationary spiral of educational grades he noted that “the main reason is that we want greater numbers to go to university". Actually, the only inflationary spiral we can be sure of as GCSE and A-level results come out in the next two weeks, is the rise in the number of appeals against given grades. However, he is right; essentially we have an assembly line grading system designed either to reject you as sub-standard or allow you to carry on to the next stage - the final product being someone who is ‘qualified’ to do a traditional university degree.

The tail is wagging the dog!