99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

After hundreds of thousands of years of gradual development, the human race has suddenly seen an explosive increase in its intelligence over the last 30 years!
That is what our exam results tell us.Exams have not got easier, we are told by BOTH main parties, so there can only be one answer.
97.6% A level pass rate, 98.7% GCSE pass rate! 27% A grades? These exams have lost their point when virtually everyone passes. Why not just give all our children a pass without the exam then the 1% don't feel left out?
Every child SHOULD have equal opportunity, and ALL children are equal but NOT in the same ways.They all have different strengths and the duty of schools is to show them where those strengths lie. To kid them that most of them should go to University and become doctors, lawyers,city men and be VERY rich is unfair on them. The result is that 150,000 of them now feel cheated out of their rights and many of those who get a degree still can't get a job. Then the mantra that no child should feel a failure ultimately fails itself, in fact this system is generating it.
So no teenager wants to do an ordinary everyday job like most of us did. And yet those jobs are MORE essential to keeping our civilisation going than ALL your fancy lawyers. They may never be as rich, but if that is where their abilities lie, encourage them, dont 'con' them into easy exams which leave them massively in debt and STILL without a job.
Are we not creating a generation of young people many of whom will eventually realise that they were mislead, kidded, conned, lied to and cheated out of a happy life doing what they were best at? And what price will we pay for that?

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

I agree that many young people are being misdirected into further education courses that will have little long term worth, but isn't one of the main reasons for that is because they have little or no alternative? There are no jobs for them to go into, so they opt for the easy way out. A further course of study to postpone the fateful day.

In the current economic climate, with businesses having to cut back on every item of "unnecessary" expenditure, the first victims of the cuts are training budgets. Apprenticeships are axed, and businesses make do with what they've got. But in reality, it is at times like this that apprenticeships and training are vital, as it is those people on whom the future recovery will be built.

To illustrate my point, perhaps Councillor Moss can tell us how many school leavers Hyndburn Council (the largest employer in the borough) is taking on this year?

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

Think its nuts what exams have become, can only see long term damage.:(

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

All I know is I took Maths O-level at QEGS IN 1981, and failed, with a miserable grade D, and then took a GSCE in that subject, at Brixton College, as a night class, many years later, and got an A*.

At the time one was beyond me, full of logarithms, quadriatic equations, algabraic fractions etc., whilst the other one was a piece of pish, about apples and oranges, most of which could be assured of a 100% pass mark, because it was completed as part of our course work.

Not taking anything away from today's young people, jolly well done, but I've said before, and do bear this in mind, but today's degree equals a pass of the old eleven-plus examination, and so on, and so forth.

:D

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

I hardly missed a day at Accy Grammar. Was always one of the top students in the middle stream (we did O-levels after 5 years, top stream after 4) and did 90 mins. homework every night & 3 hours+ at weekends. Ended up with one arm longer than the other from carrying a briefcase full of books back and forth!

I managed to 'scrape' 9 O-levels & 3 A-levels with pretty mediocre grades. Anyone getting more than one A was quite unusual.

If today's exams are just as hard then today's kids MUST be much harder working and/or much cleverer. End of.

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

I don't think students today are any cleverer, or worse, than those of the past.

Exams have gotten easier.

Everyone's a winner.

At least in theory.

Though I do feel sorry for that very small minority that fail examinations nowadays.

They must have written their name incorrectly, on the front of the exam paper.

:D

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

Even when I was at school the used to say you got 10% for writing your name correctly on the paper

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

Paper?

Not slate?

:D

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

Ya cheeky young pup:tongueout

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

That can't be right .in my Technical Drawing exam I wrote my name and only got 8% :(

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

You'd have got a higher mark writing it on the paper, not the desk.

:D

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

I rest my case:D

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

The simple answer is that I don't know but with the trims that are being made I would imagine 'not many' would cover it.

I was encouraged to go to university and was in the last batch of school leavers to get their fees paid. If I was in the same position now I would think twice, particularly as the average debt is £21k at the end of it. Not the best way to start your working life.

What I also found was that while I worked for three years to get the qualifications to catapult me into my new role as Director General of the BBC, my peers went to Granada as tea boys and ended up producing their own shows.

I did feel as if I'd made a mistake but put that new knowledge to practical use and set up a business of my own which is still thriving after eight years. University is not all it's cracked up to be in the real world and 90% of those who go just use it as an excuse to get wrecked every night away from home. Having said that, the foreign students all worked their nuts off, particularly the Chinese.

People fall into two brackets: academic and practical. I'm in the academic half, not bad with my brain but a complete idiot with any sort of DIY implement. In contrast, my brother is one of the best joiners I have ever seen in action but has absolutely no idea about how to run a home. He didn't bother with university and yet we are both successful in what we do.

I feel it depends on strength of will of the individual. I was convinced in my own mind that university would give me a huge advantage over those without a degree and I was wrong but the push to get young adults into further education is much stronger now and to go against that flow is going to take some doing, especially if all your mates are going as well.

We're living in an unfriendly world which is obsessed with making everyone equal, whilst at the same time deifying those with minimal talent and fame who appear on cheap television like The X Factor.

School results are based on the performance of the student on a handful of days in exam conditions, something you will never suffer again in your entire working life. My advice to any school leaver would be to look at the general direction in which you would like to end up going and only tackle university only if you really want to.

Getting a job at all these days looks like a nightmare and a degree is not the guaranteed ticket to employment that it once was.

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

waffle waffle :rolleyes: ;)

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

QUIET woman!!!

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

What about all the course work that is part of exams now. Not something I am in favour of unless it is all done in school under exam conditions. Its far to easy to get someone else to do the work for you when its done outside of school.


When they say pass I am assuming they mean any grade. I would like to know the C and above pass rate figures as that is what was loosely classed as a pass when I was at school.

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

One of the highest marks I got was for a 100% coursework GCSE and it was a far better reflection of my abilities than being stuck in a sports hall, baking to death in mid-July and knowing that every scribble is going to determine your final mark, regardless of how well you've just done over the past five years.

Conversely, there were a number who were some of the laziest people I have ever met and yet aced their exams. The marks they'd had during school were hardly outstanding, they didn't take study seriously and yet they came away with a top-grade GCSE.

It's the ability of the person and a degree of adaptability to the job in hand. If you want to be a farmer then a degree in Agricultural Studies is not going to help unless you're prepared to get your hands dirty as well. I also run a landscape gardening business with my best mate and people are constantly surprised that one day I'm up to my knees in fertiliser and the next I'm filming weddings at 5-star hotels.

Flexibility and a willingness to work would probably be the two things I would look for in someone. Qualifications don't really tell you about the person.

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

If exams are now easier, it is the education system at fault not the pupils having to take the exams.
They only sit the exams, they do not set the standards.

Well done to all that worked hard and acheived as high a grade as you could.

:)

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

...and to young Master Lineker.

George Lineker fails to get into university (but dad Gary insists school is to blame) | Mail Online

Agreed. It's not the young people's fault exams are resulting in so many top grades.

I think in future universities/employers will be looking at what else people have done with their lives, when it comes to trying to distinguish between umpteen candidates, with matching A* grades.

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

Less, no one has suggested the pupils are at fault, my whole line of direction was that it was the exam system at fault! And that NO political party is prepared to act to make exams meaningful again.When I was at school some didn't work and failed,some worked VERY hard and scraped through or still failed and some,the real university material,didn't have to work very hard but still walked through with 'A's. The rest of us weren't jealous of them, we didn't feel cheated or failures, we just accepted that they were an awful lot sharper academically than us.
With a 99% pass rate in GCSE and 97.6% pass in 'A' level(+27% 'A' passes) the whole point of the exams is being lost, how do universities and employers make a choice?
Yes, every credit to the young ones who have worked hard and done well within the system they have been given. My point is that system is wrong and is failing them.

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

your point is bang on,in my opinion.;)

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

Have to agree, there is something not quite right when marks are regularly so high, it like saying all kids are know geniuses, which ain't right in any shape or form, there is no doubt that lots of kids today DO work very hard on their exams, but when the results are continually so high how to you separate them, Universities and potential employers need something to separate them otherwise the exams are pointless

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

British educational college standards have been lowered so much that an "Advanced City and Guilds FTC/ONC/HNC" awarded in the late 60s/early 70s are now awarded more points on immigration scales to the US/Australia/New Zealand than a "degree" from one of the new British uni's which formerly taught cake decoration and tire changing .
Be interesting to see how all these kids who got multiple A+s on their GCSE's would do if they had to take the late 50s 11 plus exam at age 16 or 17, just as a social experiment to see how/if things had changed .

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

We have to admit that not all children are academically gifted, and those who aren't will struggle with the work required of them at Uni.
I agree that schools should differentiate between those with practical skills, and those who are academic...and if we do not wish to rear a generation of disillusioned young adults. then these should be directed towards achieving life skills.......teach plumbing, gas fitting, woodwork. metalwork....things that will make good use of the hands on stuff that some children would be better at.
It is better to be able to succeed at something than to constantly stuggle with concepts that you are never going to grasp.

Do refuse operatives need a degree couse to do their work?

We really need to value those who do the jobs that make life bearable, but that do not require the mental sharpness of an Einstein.

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

Back in the 50s and 60s you took your 11+ if you were good enough you went to Grammar School if not Secondary School, but then it was tampered with much in the same way as Social Engineering, put the chaff with the wheat hoping that the wheat will drag the chaff up to their levels, doesn't work never will, the wheat gets fed up and bails out leaving everything for the chaff to ruin:(

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

I wasn't suggesting that you were suggesting it was their fault.:D

Just felt like giving our yoof a bit of a compliment, they are going to need a bit of a boost to carry them through the next few frustrating years.
:)

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

'I'm afraid it's three no's.'

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/...31_468x298.jpg

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

When I did 'O' levels in 1972, the lowest pass mark for a Grade 'E' was 43%.
Nowadays a percentage of sample papers collected from schools nationally, are marked to set the average pass rate. Therefore, if the exam samplers are poor the pass rate is lowered. I know this to be true as a friend of mine checks the samples in this area.

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

Couldn't agree more. I have worked in the education system for a long time and have seen it fall apart over the past few years.
Establishments today are based on inspections and pass rates and every single place can be outstanding for a week whilst the inspectors are in and can make sure the pass rates are good.
It is a major problem that those young people who work very hard go out of school/college with exactly the same certificates as those who do not even try and then towards the deadline date for work to be handed in cram a full years coursework into 1 week with all the help they need just to make sure they pass. Who does the employer pick from 2 people with the same qualification :(

That is why so many decent individuals are leaving the teaching profession in droves as they can see exactly what is wrong and are powerless to do something about it.

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

anzac, it's good to hear someone on the 'inside' confirming what a lot of us feel. Just watch that the Thought Police don't track you down, Big Brother IS here!

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

Yes we hear this from the inside on many things but, nobody on the inside ever does anything, would it be a wrong career move?
:D

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

i am pretty sure that when i took my GCE O levels that we were told the pass mark varied as the results were plotted and a set percentage got A,B,C etc IIRC about 35% were expected/marked as fails irrespective of what they actually scored

even my current employers Performance development framework does it, 30 % of people get rated as under performing irrespective of how hard they worked. 2 years on the trot and you are up for D&G......

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

Well two nomarks and a pretty girl :D

Re: 99% Pass rate?-Are we being fair to our teenagers?
 

When I took GCE's entwisi there were no A,B,or C markings it was Pass, 45% Credit 60% and distinction 90%+