A-Level pass rate falls – to 99%
Friday 19th August 2011, 2:29PM BST.
On another successful day of A-level results for Guernsey students, Sarah Le Mesurier, 18, stood out with A* grades in maths, chemistry, further maths and physics, as well as an AS-level in music. (Picture by Brian Green, 1171479)
A-LEVEL students in Guernsey have achieved a 99% pass rate this year – but that was the lowest since 2003, when it stood at 98.3%.
The figure was down by 0.3% on last year, with 941 exams graded A* to E. Just six entries were ungraded.
The pass rate at A* to C was 79.5% – 3.5% higher than in England.
The pass rate for all level-three vocational courses at the College of Further Education was 97.5% – a higher rate than 2010. Of those, 31.9% of those were distinctions – a 1.9% increase on last year.
At the Grammar School and Sixth Form Centre, 23.7% of grades were at A* or A, while 26 students gained A* or A in at least three subjects.
The Ucas website crashed at one point yesterday due to the high number of people trying to access it.
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Quote from Thursdays Daily Mail by the British Chambers of Commerce Group re UK students …
‘many school leavers and graduates are unemployable.In general younger people lack numerical skills,research skills,ability to focus and read,plus poor written English’
Nearly half of the 2,000 small firms contacted said that they would be fairly or very nervous about hiring someone who had just finished their A-levels
It begs the question of whether or not schools are churning out ‘exam passers’ but not preparing them for the workplace
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Hell, standards must be slipping! Only 99% pass rate! Where do all these educated people go? I read the article Ray referred to and it’s a pretty accurate reflection of the way standards in education have fallen over the years. With Labour dictating that no-one should be considered a failure, new grades were introduced which in effect meant that spelling your name correctly on the exam paper was almost a pass in itself! As a fervent believer in the old-fashioned streaming system, the current grading system makes a mockery of education.
Why can’t people understand that some students will be brighter than others? Some will be better at sports than others? Some will be more interested in furthering their education than others?
In an odd way, it seems that the schools are only interested in attaining higher and higher standards each year, ie quantity rather than quality. If that is the case, then in light of the DM article suggesting that the students are generally unemployable, then the exams (or curriculum) aren’t really testing the students properly.
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Meanwhile, local employment thinktanks are dreaming up “employability certificates” to determine and differentiate between school leavers skills.
Hmmm, so exactly what are A levels for nowadays??
God forbid anyone fail…… afterall what could they possibly learn from that??
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I was going to make comment but Ray, Dave and Dave Haslam have said all that needs to be said !!
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In a sense I feel very sorry for the students. You can only pass what’s put in front of you and every year they get this response.
That said, I wholeheartedly agree with the other comments. It’s the attitude reflected by Dep Sean McManus on another thread where he’s talking about how do you define “better” education where someone has dared to say education is better at some schools than others.
It’s high time we took the gloves off and wipe all this PC *stuff* to one side. Sorry, bleeding hearts, but YES, some children are more intelligent than others, YES some are more arty than others, YES some people will get higher paid jobs than others because they worked hards. SOME will pass exams because they studied and SOME won’t
There may be all sorts of reasons for that and it is perfectly true that we all have different skills and of course let’s address all of that blah, blah. BUT let’s not cover up all these facts by lowering standards, creating new grades etc
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My analysis of the situation:-
All of the schools are merely teaching students how to pass exams, which is becoming more and more like memorising a list of facts every time.
This is done because it is far easier to teach a list of facts than the alternative of learning how to analyse and appreciate a subject which takes time and resources that due to rampant cost cutting schools do not have.
My advice.
1) No more mock papers. Students should go into the exam with no idea whatever what might be in the paper, or what form it would take.
This would be a fairer test of problem solving ability, not ability to memorise facts.
2) For the month before the exams, students are not allowed to use:- Social networking sites, smart phones, etc. All revision to be done from books, because too many students use the Net as a short-cut for finding information rather than hard work.
3) All coursework to be done under examination conditions, see 1)
4) Schools to be issued with a legally binding “Health & Safety Disclaimer” signed by the Government so that the dumbing down of science lessons by showing videos rather than hands on work can be corrected.
5) Random examinations throughout the year on any studied subject with no advance notice.
The results of these examinations contribute 30% to the overall grade(s).
Keep ‘em on their toes all the time methinks.
-A
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What is really crazy here is that we are subsidising all the fee paying College students but that when it comes to university many local families receive no grant whatsoever as this is means tested.
Where is the consistency?
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L’eree lad…..don’t really see your point as to receive no subsidy for Uni ‘local’families would have to have an income in excess of £80k pa so should be able to support their offspring, after all Uni is a life choice. Compared to the rest of Europe, Guernsey Education dept is very generous with taxpayers money.
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Wow, 99% eh? well these must be pretty very intelligent children, or the exams are ridiculously easy. I ran into a girl with a bassoon case the other day, I asked her what she was going to study at uni and she told me Medicine. Very commendable, but there are far fewer fine bassoonists on the planet than doctors. If you’ve been diagnosed with a terminal illness, medicine can give you painkillers sure, but Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto gives you faith in the sublime and dare I say it Heaven itself. My point : lets not celebrate mediocrity or promote it as a ‘success’. Mediocrity is what it is, greatness gives us all hope, something to dream about. If everyone is gaining A grades then really no one is. That takes hope away from those kids doesn’t it? Not sure I want to be dispensed medicine by a mediocre doctor but my stay in hospital would be far more tolerable if there was great music being pumped around the ward. (Obviously a choice classical, rock, jazz, pop whatever) never known a great musician or artist ever want to be anything else, do you ?
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