Blog: Good grief – talk about information overload.

The Government has released more than 14 million “hidden” GCSE exam results, giving parents the “full facts” about every secondary school in England.

Parents can see how every school performs in each GCSE subject.

It is claimed that they will be able to make highly informed choices about where they send their children to school.

Pardon? Is someone having a laugh?

First of all, the spread sheets that need to be accessed on the Department for Education website are far from simple.

Goodness only knows who is going to bother going through them. Someone will a lot of time on their hands I suspect.

But secondly does the data really serve any useful purpose? I really do have my doubts.

I know that I’m yet again going to bang a familiar drum. I just don’t like school performance tables. I never have.

They don’t really reflect the progress a pupil has made during their time at school. And all this new data still doesn’t.

I well remember talking several years ago to a headteacher -albeit of a primary – whose school had scored a very high ranking in Key Stage 2 tests.

The group of 11-year-olds had been a very good one, he said, but he admitted that he didn’t expect the school to perform so well the following year because – and to be blunt – the cohort was not so bright..

To those who think the head was not being very PC, my old teachers would have used the word “thick”.

The point is the same – cohorts can differ and this must surely impact on figures.

I thought the previous Government to be masters at bombarding us with huge amounts of data which was as clear as mud.

Things don’t appear to have changed with young Dave and Nick running the show.

An enthusiastic sounding official at the Department for Education was delighted to tell me that an “avalanche” of data was being released.

An avalanche it certainly is but I don’t for one moment share his enthusiasm or delight.

Education Secretary Michael Gove, claims that the release of all this previously “hidden” information will “drive standards across the board and ensure that schools are accountable for their performance”.

Again it just doesn’t wash with me.