John McDonnell
Presentation Evening of Reading Grammar School
Tonight we celebrate the outstanding academic achievements of the whole of Reading School and especially those of the prize winners. This very successful Berkshire school has shown that whatever the examination system and however many changes the talent and hard work of its pupils shines through.
Boys who can get to Reading can prosper through examinations. However, I strongly believe we have now reached the point where there are far too many exams and where the examination system itself gets in the way of a good liberal education.
Students now face important public exams at the ages of 14, 16, 17, 18, and 19 if they go on to the Sixth Form and university. This means that in five out of six important years in their education the summer term is almost entirely taken up by revision, examination and recuperation. To lose five terms out of 18 in this way is to reduce the amount of reading and the number of useful classes, discussions and lectures they can attend. At the same time there are increasing worries about what achievement each exam represents. Reading students today feel they have to achieve A or A* at GCSE and we now learn that examining boards are considering an A+ or A* at A level to try to differentiate between good and very good candidate.
Dissatisfaction and reform are both in the air. I would urge those conducting the government review to think as carefully about the needs of the gifted and hardworking as they do about the needs of the disadvantaged. They should conclude that it is wrong to examine students like those at Reading five times in six years. They should abolish the exam for 17 year olds and accept that high flying students could well skip the subjects they intend to study in the Sixth Form at GCSE.
The idea of the exams for sixteen year olds should be to mark the achievement of school leavers not pursuing academic study. They might also be used to illustrate basic competence in a range of subjects for those going on to higher study in other areas. The universities I talk to do not find the GCSE results or the AS results particularly useful when selecting applicants to become undergraduates. The best universities tend to rely on references, interviews and conditional offers based on A level grades. This means it is very important that examining boards should keep a high standard at A Level and moderate attainment levels year by year to ensure consistency.
As so often in British educational reform we alter or damage what is best in the system because for understandable reasons we do not like the way the system handles disadvantaged pupils or young people with no academic inclination. Reformers should concentrate on improving technical and vocational education and training for those who are not academic and on reforming the GCSE so that it meets the needs of school leavers. This will allow us to reduce the exam burden on the brightest and best, thereby freeing them to read more widely, think more deeply and achieve higher standards at A level and university entry.
