I both agree and disagree with Colin. Yes, it seems barely credible that educational standards per se just keep going up and up as these results appear to suggest they do.

What I suspect has happened is that teachers have become extremely skilled at teaching to the requirements of the examinations and, to be very cynical (but blaming the system, not teachers themselves), focusing their efforts on those students for whom improved grades are going to make the stats look good. Examination coaching, rather than real teaching and learning in other words ; teachers have complained about it for years but, sadly, no’one really listens.

Also, don’t degrade the efforts of the students themselves. It might seem that they’re not skilled in the ways you think they should be but that doesn’t mean to say they haven’t learned anything or worked hard.

BTW I’m a teacher myself but not in the UK. I would maintain to anyone who listens that external exams where I am are getting harder, not easier.

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The pressure to get results from students is evident in every school I have worked in. Some schools are known as “exam factories” because they spend an awful lot of time teaching the students to pass the exam. This is absolutely a function of the league table situation that we have.

Some schools still quote the number of students gaining 5 GCSEs at C or above. Unless you know what those subjects are it is a pointless statistic, particularly as they may be in numerous ‘softer’ subjects. Every subject has its merit but a fistful of soft subjects is worthless to the vast majority of employers.

A better measure is 5 grades at C or above including English and Maths. Even better still for traditionalists is the new English Baccalaureate (Ebacc) measure that includes a foreign language, two sciences and a humanity at C or better as well as English and Maths. I note that none of the schools have quoted their Ebacc figure! It is likely to be less than 30% for most schools in Shropshire.

I think Colin should extend his sample size before making judgements; knowing one student hardly puts him in a position to draw any valid conclusion. Any grade C GCSE student would be able to tell him this.

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The other thing that bothers me slightly about Colin’s posts is that they come across as thinly-veiled ‘youth bashing’. Reading a lot of the posts on this very site, I’m struck by how poorly-written so many of them are (this debate so far being an honourable exception).

I can’t believe these posters are all of the ‘young generation’ but suspect that many are of the 40+ group and see technological devices as a green light to disregard such troublesome things as spelling, grammar, punctuation etc.

Re the results, I reckon the whole debate over them seems to be just one of those tedious annual rituals we Brits are condemned to go through. As a non-partisan, I like to heap a lot of the blame on both our main political parties ; the Tories for imposing a ‘one-size-fits-all’ national curriculum(except for their beloved public schools who could opt out of it) and Labour for their ridiculous obsession with targets, resulting in too many of what Randolph calls ‘exam factories’.

But, yes, well done to the Wakeman. I went to a school in Shropshire that was under threat of closure almost the whole time I was there, and it created a ‘let’s show them’ mentality that was quite stimulating.

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I’d be interested to see the figures split into results gained by boys and those gained by girls. Myself and 3 close friends have 4 children that have taken GCSEs in the last couple of years, both the boys failed to gain any enthusiasm in their last 2 years then got miserable results and are still drifting with no direction but both of the girls have been motivated and gained excellent results. All of the kids are bright, intelligent and articulate so why is there such a big difference in their attitudes and success levels. Personally I feel that our school system is weighted towards girls and their easier style of learning.
As an after note I’d also like to alert people to the fact that colleges are labeling courses full time but only expect pupils to attend for 2 and a half days, what are these kids supposed to do with the other 4 and a half days they have? Study? No they hang about bored and disillusioned. What are we going to do when all of our skilled middle-aged workers retire? No wonder it’s so easy for better educated and more polite Europeans to find work in Britian whilst are boys just get more and more frustrated.

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Compared to say computers, human intelligence is incredibly slow to develop. If the exams are the same standard as they have always been, there has been a sudden leap in intelligence, unprecedented in human history. I have yet to hear a good theory on why we are suddenly getting smarter as a nation.

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