Majority support A-level reform
Most Britons want the government to introduce radical reforms to the A-level system, amid predictions of another year of record pass rates.
Ninety per cent of people replying to a Guardian/ICM poll said they backed a move to a diploma style system as recommended by the Tomlinson report last year.
The government in February rejected recommends from that report – which advised the creation of a four-level diploma to replace A-levels, GCSEs and all existing vocational qualifications.
The poll showed signs that there is still confidence in the A-level system, but with people wanting to see changes that would allow students to take more subjects. A large proportion, 43 per cent, called for an increase in the number of subjects people do along the lines of the International Baccalaureate.
Many respondents wanted to see changes to mark out the highest achievers. A majority, 75 per cent, wanted to see a breakdown of marks in every section of A-Levels and more than half wanted to see introduction of A* grades.
While 43 per cent of people replying to the poll thought results had improved because A-levels had got easier, 41 per cent thought this was because of better teaching standards.
The findings of the survey are likely to add to the pressure on the government, amid growing demands from head teachers and educationalists, to follow the Tomlinson recommendations.
Expected record high results this year will also highlight once again the question of whether standards are really improving or whether A-levels are just getting easier.
Ken Spours, a member of the Tomlinson inquiry, told the Guardian the government would be “haunted” by the annual debate about ‘grade inflation’ unless it decided to implement all the Tomlinson recommendations.
But the general secretary of NASUWT, Chris Keates, denied there was any ‘dumbing down’ of A-levels, and put the expected rise in pass rates down to hard work by teachers and students.
“The annual ritual abuse of teachers and their students in the run-up to the publication of examination results has begun in earnest,” he said.
“Anecdotal comparisons by those who left school years ago are regularly trotted out as ‘evidence’ that exams have been dumbed down. It is about time that recognition was given to the fact that there is no such thing as an ‘easy’ A level.
Thursday will see 260,000 students receiving their A-level results.
