Do A-levels serve their purpose? (From York Press)

Do A-levels serve their purpose?

10:42am Wednesday 2nd September 2009 in

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COUN James Alexander’s comments on A-levels (Unfair to claim dumbing down, Soapbox, August 22) are characteristic of the superficial, misleading and crowd-pleasing responses of politicians to the problems in education.

The issue is not whether A-levels are easier to pass than they were. The real issue is whether A-levels serve their purpose.

Sixth-form education should inspire and prepare students both for higher education and the world of work. Examinations should allow the limited places that universities and employers have to offer to be allocated appropriately and fairly. It is here that A levels themselves are the failure. All manner of different tests are now set by universities trying to distinguish between the overwhelming numbers of apparently highly qualified applicants.

Rather than whinge, however, I’d like to propose two solutions.

First, rather than crudely grading students, their rank order nationally should be made available. While 45 per cent of students taking A-level maths are awarded a grade A, those in the top five per cent are probably better qualified than those on the borderline; currently universities cannot distinguish the two.

Second, the rank order of students within their own school should be made available. Privately educated students win disproportionately many places at top universities.

Exam results that place a student in the top five per cent of his or her low-performing school are probably more impressive than apparently better results that place a student in the bottom five per cent of a top-performing one.

Matthew Handy, Director of Mathematics, Dotmaths, East Parade, Harrogate.