OFQUAL agrees with The Libertarian Alliance: BLOG

As I've mentioned before I found some GCSE Science papers from 2008 over on The Libertarian Alliance:BLOG and my 10 year old daughter took and passed the lower tier test of the biology GCSE despite the fact that she hasn't even started secondary education yet. The news today that Kim Tattershall head of OFQUAL (the independent regulator of exam boards), in a letter [pdf] to the Schools Minister, argues that the changes made in 2005/2006 to the GCSE science exams have

"raised significant causes for concern"
"led to a fall in the quality of science assessments"
"(given) students too many optional ways to obtain the qualifications"
"(put)too much emphasis on multiple choice questions"

She goes on to single out the physics GCSE describing her findings as worrying and noting an overall decline in the standards of performance. Politicians have taken predictable stances over this evaluation. Schools Minister Jim Knight has tried to sidestep the issue by claiming it is a science issue and not a problem with GCSEs; the Shadow Schools Minister accuses the Government of devaluing science exams. Headteacher's representatives have also adopted predictable positions over the results of the evaluation with a distinct stance being taken by both private and state education bodies.

What do I think? I welcome the report and all of the criticisms it raises. For many years I've annoyed, angered and upset my youngest employees when I suggest that the GCSE exam is not as hard as the GCE it replaced or, if I'm honest, the GCE that my parents sat. Once I've explained that this is not their fault, but the fault of the system that educated them they feel less aggrieved. It usually takes around 12 months for them to come to accept that maybe I've got a valid point.

As has been oft referred to by many, including myself, as the root causes of the problem are the "education, education, education, speech by Blair coupled with the Labour obsession of proving, via statistics, that they are doing a good job running the country. Each year an every higher number of students must attain pass marks in GSCE exams to justify the huge sums of money thrown at the education system. Should that number decline then that would be deemed politically to be failure, which would never do. The smoke and mirrors introduction of the A* grade, first to GCSE and now to A level, is not because the education system is working too well but because it is failing our children and not teaching them well enough.

We need change and we need it 10 years ago.

Exams must be made tougher. Grades must be harder to achieve. Only the brightest students should be encouraged to continue in academic education but the less intelligent should have access to vocational studies if they desire it. Above all we must be honest with students about their level of academic ability and not give them a false impression about their potential.