Michael Gove deserves E for effort on grade inflation
IT is that time of year when exam results are out and already the effects of the ludicrous grade inflation of the past few decades are making themselves felt.
Michael Gove is to be congratulated for trying to halt the trend of meaningless results but he is trying to do so through Government diktat instead of tackling the problem at its roots.
Ordering examination boards not to produce an increase in A grades is as daft as ordering them to produce yet another hike.
The only way this problem will be solved is through the standard of the exams by eliminating course work and multiple choice answers, requiring reasoning rather than regurgitated facts and employing only those with real expertise to mark the papers so that unusually clever answers can be recognised as such.
A further requirement for clear, concise, properly spelled and punctuated English would help.
Meanwhile there is moaning that some universities are looking back to GCSE results when confronted with large
A further requirement for clear, concise, properly spelled and punctuated English would help
numbers of applicants with straight As at A level.
Short of every university setting its own examination papers it is difficult to see what else they can do.
But government can change that by making A levels seriously demanding and then getting its nose out of university selection so that it is academic ability and not social engineering that counts.