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Today is one of those days when, it seems, Education just cannot win. It’s the day when, in England, students receive the results of their A level examinations.
The significance of these results is that any student wishing to progress on to Higher Education will do so based upon the grades achieved in these examinations. So not getting the grades needed in these examinations, could mean that the student misses out on their chosen place at university.
Of course, teachers also get nervous at this time, hoping that their students have done well and achieved the grades they needed (or better). Schools, too, hope that the results of their students are good; good grades achieved by pupils makes it easier to attract new students to the school.
What often happens, though, is that if the grades achieved by students across the country are good, then people, well some people, well, actually, some newspapers and the people who read them, will say that the examinations are too easy. It seems strange that, in some people’s eyes, good grades don’t seem to be an indication of the quality and quantity of teaching and learning going on in schools; it only seems to be taken as an indication of a ‘dumbing down’ of the examination system.
Of course, if the grades across the country are poor, then the same newspapers and their readers start to claim that it is a reflection of poor teaching.
So, you see, whichever way it goes, today is a day education just cannot win. At least not in the eyes of the media. Behind the stories, though, are young adults whose futures could be, in part, determined by the outcomes of today; many of them will be successful and many will not. Let us hope that today is a day for celebrating for most students, their families, teachers and schools.
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Post Revisions:
- 19 August, 2010 @ 12:16 [Current Revision] by doug
- 19 August, 2010 @ 12:15 by doug
Tags: A Level, Colleges and Universities, Education, Educators, England, GCE Advanced Level, Higher education, school, Student
