Elizabeth Truss is Deputy Director of the independent think tank Reform, and co-author of its new report, A new level, which is published today and concludes that today’s students are being badly let down by the A-level system.
The relationship between politicians and academics has not always been an easy one. However, a reforming Government should view universities as allies in the battle for intellectual integrity and the starting point in abolishing the ersatz academic qualifications that are emerging from government quangos. This reform should start with the A-Level, which is the most popular choice at 16 (46% do it), the entrance exam for university (76% go on to higher education) and the pace-setter for all of school qualifications.
Reform’s new report published today, shows that an absence of academic authority has led to “sat-nav” A-levels that fail to make students think and do not prepare them for university. We present analysis by academics in English, Mathematics, Chemistry and History. It finds that the imposition of six separately examined modules in 2000 created a “learn and forget” culture where holistic subjects have been balkanised. Like using sat-nav rather than a map, students no longer have to think about what they are doing and examiners are prohibited from exercising judgement.
Hollow exams containing “nonsense questions” are prescribed by bureaucrats, not academics. In the sciences, many parted questions direct students through each part of a problem. In the arts, prescriptive marking guidance running to many pages prohibits examiners from rewarding originality, creativity and flair. Students are obliged to use “somebody else’s mind”.
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