Paul Johnston

Having taught secondary students for 32 years I still have that frisson of excitement every mid-August about the A level results. This despite having retired 6 years ago!

Every year the papers get worked up about grade inflation and every year the ritual response of whoever happens to be the Secretary of State and the officials in the examining business decry the criticisms as belittling the efforts of our young students who are brighter and harder working than ever before.

I will never forget attending in the mid-1990s a meeting of Heads of History in London organised by Edexcel in which we were introduced to an experimental Alevel syllabus (E, as I recall) which was introduced by a respected Professor from Lancaster University (my own 'alma mater', so no mean institution!) who suggested that change in the syllabus and mode of examining was necessary because 'so many students taking A level History today are functionally illiterate.' My department promptly changed to OCR.

However the Prof turned out to be pointing towards the future. Pretty soon the then Conservative government was considering new modes of A level and boards were experimenting with modular approaches in some subjects. There was also talk of introducing an intermediate level called AS to be taken after the Lower Sixth and to be of a lower standard than A level but to contribute to it about 40% of the marks.

This was shelved by the incoming Labour goverment in 1997 but introduced by David Blunkett in 2000 (remember Curriculum 2000?). History and other subjects that had resisted 'modularisation' were now to be modular. AS levels were to be half-A level, containing half the modules and (this is the root of the inflation the press perceives) to be taken at the end of the Lower VI year with the possibility of modules with low marks being retaken the following January or even later with the highest mark attained contributing to the eventual A level grade. The remaing modules, termed A2 were to be taken at the end of the Upper VI. Schools were and are allowed to enter their pupils for both AS and A2 after UVI, thus nearly reproducing the end of course papers which characterised A level in most subjects when it still was 'the gold standard'. However some contend (and i agree with them) that schools that do this put their students at a potential disadvantage as the opportunities for more than one bite at the cherry that the AS/A2 system affords are largely eliminated.

That the Blunkett reform has led to about a quarter of A levels awarded being at grade A should surprise no-one. It was designed to do precisely that, though I doubt if anyone in the Government or the QCA will ever admit as much. This is in no way to disparage the efforts of the students. They have to work within the system that obtains, as do their teachers. They do, indeed, now face public exams every year for three years (possibly four, if entered early for some GCSEs) and they are probably not getting the same stimulation and enjoyment from their A level courses that their forebears got as a result.

In the interests of all involved this is a reform which needs urgently to be itself reformed! 

Invited to Tolworth Girls School today with Dennis Doe, Sue Baker and Tricia Bamford for Citizenship discussions with girls from years 8, 10 and VIth Form (which group included 2 young men.)

The questioning by the younger girls seemed much more lively and uninhibited than that of the older ones. There is obviously some darned good work going on there. I'd always thought that TGS was a school that was serious about educational achievement and this impression was much strengthened by the conversations with pupils this morning.

The whole thing made me feel nostalgic about my own teaching days, especially as one of the teachers I met had been taught by me at London Oratory.