"Uncle Davey" <noway@jose.com> wrote in message
news:c0t899$9je$0@pita.alt.net...
>
> Look what a mess they've made of it.
>
> They're trying to stop kids from being allowed to take a lot of gcses now.
>
> When I was a kid it was O levels, and I got thirteen, and one thing you
can
> say is it enables you to get very broad in your basic education before
> starting to specialise, and now they are against that. I guess British
kids
> are gonna get dumber and dumber until they won't have the ability required
> to clean a toilet.
>
> Uncle Davey
>
>
http://education.guardian.co.uk/gcse/story/0,5500,1149812,00.html?79%3A+Uk+latest
>
> Exams fail generation of pupils
>
> . Schools chief says basics being ignored
> . Plans for new diploma unveiled today
>
> Rebecca Smithers, education correspondent
> Tuesday February 17, 2004
> The Guardian
>
> The secondary school examination and assessment system is so flawed that
> even high-achievers with strings of top-grade GCSEs are leaving school
with
> poor basic skills in numeracy and literacy, the man leading a government
> inquiry into 14-19 education says today.
> In a devastating critique of the exams the former chief inspector of
schools
> Mike Tomlinson singles out GCSEs in particular for failing to challenge an
> entire generation because of the huge burden of assessment.
>
One of the biggest problems is that the teachers themselves went through the
system at a time when basic skills like literacy were de-emphasised, and
"whatever you wrote or said" was OK because it's your "ethnic" or "class"
English and we mustn't criticise your spelling, grammar or pronunciation!
Self-expression (tm) was encouraged. Now we are into the second generation
and if your teacher is under 40 and went to a UK state school, you are in
trouble.
A few years years ago a friend's very bright child in London was marked down
in an English class essay for spelling "refrigerator" without a "d" (as in
"refridgerator"). The kid was 100% right, of course, and stood up for
himself. It meant he was marked down as a troublemaker. His mother had to
come to school and speak to the headmaster who regarded it as a pupil
disciplinary matter rather than a problem having an illiterate teach
English. No, I'm not making this up.
> In an interview with Guardian Education he says the overwhelming evidence
> from employers and universities is that English and maths GCSEs are "not
> proxies" for the basic skills required for higher education and in the
> workplace.
>
> This morning he will unveil sweeping changes to secondary school exams
under
> which a new"diploma" framework may eventually replace GCSEs, A-levels and
> other qualifications for the 14-19 age group.
>
> Crucially, all will be required to study a "core" of English, maths and
> information and communication technology, likely to be set at a higher
> standard than today's GCSE. Mr Tomlinson hopes it will go a considerable
way
> towards meeting the widespread concern about poor skills.
>
> Mr Tomlinson, appointed by the government to head an inquiry into the
14-19
> phase of education after the A-level fiasco of 2002, says it is the
> government's biggest educational challenge.
>
> "If accepted, it will have a huge impact on our education system. That
> weighs heavy because it must be right. It has to be implemented in a
> planned, systematic way," he says.
>
> The working group will set out proposals for a diploma framework that will
> provide a "ladder of progression" into which exam units or components, and
> the recognition of other skills and activities, will be slotted.
>
> Achievement in each will be recorded on an official "transcript" which
will
> be available to universities and employers.
>
> Further work has still to be done on such key issues as how individual
> subjects should be graded within the overall diploma, in close
consultation
> with universities.
>
> Mr Tomlinson hopes the new system will stop schools putting students in to
> take large numbers of GCSE.
>
> "What we can't stop ... is the school that wants to do 10, 12, 13 GCSEs -
> you would not need those to get the intermediate diploma even at the
highest
> level."
>
> Students needed to be set greater challenges in the exam system. "We talk
> about challenge at A-level but for many young people there isn't much of a
> challenge presented by GCSE."
>
> There was a huge problem of poor skills in young people, not only at the
> lower end of the ability range but also in pupils achieving high grades.
>
> The assumption had always been that poor literacy and numeracy were
> associated with poor achievement.
>
> "What we have found is that this is not the case. It isn't that young
people
> at university are not able to do this - it's not been an integral part of
> their programme and it's not been encouraged and supported by the way in
> which they are assessed.
>
> "It's not their fault, nor is it the fault of their teachers."
>
> Even pupils with GCSE and A-level maths were having to take remedial
classes
> once they arrived at university.
>
> Mr Tomlinson says he is "quite convinced" that GCSEs in maths and English
> language should not be seen as substitutes for basic numeracy and
literacy.
>
> "As the syllabus has developed and the assessment methods have developed,
> it's very difficult to say with assurance that someone getting a
particular
> grade in those subjects has those basic skills at the level required."
>
> An important element in Mr Tomlinson's report is that students will be
> offered the choice of taking a "specialised" diploma focusing on arts or
> sciences or a more general "open"one.
>
> Those choosing the science diploma would be required to take an
appropriate
> maths course as well as basic maths.
>
> The idea is that the 14-19 phase will be organised around diplomas at the
> first four levels of a new national qualifications framework: entry,
> foundation, intermediate and advanced. All diplomas would have the basic
> structure of core, main learning and common skills developed across the
> curriculum.
>
> At the higher level, pupils would have to undertake an extended project or
> personal challenge appropriate to the level of the diploma.
>
> This would help them acquire the research, planning, analytical and
> presentational skills sought by employers and higher education, and would
> effectively replace discredited coursework, in which there is currently
much
> scope for plagiarism.
>
>
>
--
Mike Dworetsky
(Remove "pants" spamblock to send e-mail)
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