Jun 10 2007
Too many exams
Teachers are right to say there are too many exams. Young people are examined in national tests at 7,11,14,16,17,18 and then again at University if they go on the Higher Education.
I would like to see the abolition of the 14 year old tests and the 17 year old exams.
There is a need for 11 year old appraisal, so the secondary schools know what they are taking on. Remedieal teaching??may be ??necessary?? because children have not reached a level of attainment in English and maths to be able to tackle a secondary school course.
16 year old exams are school leaving exams for some, and pointers to future capability when going on to A levels or more advanced technical and vocational courses for others. They should remain.
A levels should be made more difficult and return to being the "gold standard" of the educational system. Predicted grades are an important part of the University selection process.
If every summer from 16 to 21 is taken up with important exams - as it is for some young people going to University - it occupies every summer term in revision, testing and celebrations. Some of that time would be better spent reading and learning more.
Whilst I agree with the profession that there are too many external tests, I do think we need some national tests at important landmarks in a child’s progress. The two most improtant are when they shift from primary to secondary school, so the new school knows what they are inheriting, and when the young person leaves school. The outside world needs some external standard of achievement to help?? find suitable openings for the school leaver. Parents do want to be able to judge the performance of schools. In the case of secondaries, that requires comparing the results of the leavers with their level of achievement five or seven years earlier when they first joined the school.
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
Children are not given any time to ‘learn’ anymore, they are simply put through an industrialised educational system that bears no relevance to 21st century needs.
All exams should be for the benefit of the child and the child alone, never for the benefit of government statisticians.
I support exams at 11, 16 and 18 only.
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“The two most important are when they shift from primary to secondary school, so the new school knows what they are inheriting”
Have you spoke to any Secondary Heads about this? From what I hear many Secondary schools do their own tests (unrevised/tutored for) about a month after starting secondary school to get their own benchmark for future performance!
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Nope. The KS2 SATs (at age 11) are viewed by teachers at completely useless as diagnostics for secondary school. The first things many Sec. Schools do is to retest them so they know where they are.
What happens in reality is that :
1. teachers spend all year practicing for them - and only them - leading to a skewed education, and ability to answer questions without really understanding the material.
2. because the only measure is the number of level 4 the entire effort is focused on those around this level. The low achievers (no chance of getting it) are ignored, and the high achievers (easy for them) get bored by endless repetition of things they can already do.
3. Cheating is fairly rife.
The tests function is purely political ; it is for the benefit of DfES and OFSTED only, via league tables.
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