A levelling of achievement

Tom

Depth rather than breadth ... Another point, that is often overlooked, is it also provides the most efficient preparation. Friends who studied the IB, for example, simply could not have done all three sciences. This has caused major problems in their degrees.

Edward

You have excelled yourself with this one Phillips.

"... studying such issues as 'hairstyles in society', or 'critically responding to a range of computer games"

Love it. Shudder all ye Educationalists, Phillips has pressed the Satire button.

David Lindsay

Oh, no she hasn't, Edward - these things are real. Of course, A-levels will still be required in order to gain admission to certain universities, and will therefore still be delivered by certain schools. Guess which universities. And guess which schools.

Peter

If somebody has a skill, hairdressing for example,why on earth do they need to go to university,why not be a hairdresser?
Of course it might be fun hanging around uni bars for two or three years,but will people be any further forward in a career?
Good tradesmen can earn far more than polytechnic lecturers.Surely it is preferable that the education system produces people who can do things rather than casting people in the educationalist's image.

Thom

Great article one point though - An education is indeed the way to employment and the possibly to improve oneself through attainment in the future but as this new movement in education demonstrates the honus on education is to get its "customers" a "piece of paper", rather than the necessary life skills and/or knowledge engendered by the A-level or one of the existing tried and tested vocational systems of education (i.e. apprenticeships). You cant collect "education tokens", send them in an SAE and get a job from it; it doesn't wash in the real world that (still) holds all the purse strings. The cancerous nature of the education systems cannot sustain itself in a market environment for much longer and these things are the straws that will eventually break the camels back. I just worry, more so than others as my wife is a science teacher, that the final straw will come in the form of a dead teacher at the hands of a student in class.

Thom

Peter, A fantastic point about tradesmen and polytechnics (sorry - there METROPOLITANS UNI's now!) and one in which free market forces works out the best possible solution. It will not tolerate any more interference than is bearable from the education system before spitting it out altogether; look at the numerous anti-university ad campaigns already in existence.

Rob

But the end of decent educational standards in Britain will surely lead to a vast increase in your mindless fanbase, so why are you complaining?

Big Joak

The inadequacy of the English A level is not now nor for a long time before a public examination effective for its purpose. Its near now total ineffectiveness is illustrated by the introduction of aptitude tests - eg the biomedical aptitude test - accompanied by interview for places in real universities still teaching real academic subjects. Genuine universities will soon be forced to re-introduce the old matriculation exams, which, after all, the aptitude tests are merely the forerunners. Reliance on the A level was engendered largely by the need for universities to economise financially as a result of cutbacks forced upon them by the State on which they should never have allowed themselves to become dependent upon for near total support in the first instance.