A-levels Fail To Open The hearts and Minds of Our Young Adults

By Anthony Seldon - Master of Wellington College

I found studying for my A-levels in the Seventies the most stimulating academic experience of my life.

For English, we spent the entire lower sixth reading poetry, plays and novels completely unconnected with our set texts, which we only began in the upper sixth. The three papers of history covered more than 200 years of European and British history and 30 years of mid-19th century America. In politics and economics, the courses ranged widely over both theory and practice. At S-level history, we studied great historians through the ages, and philosophy and historiography. I still have all my essays, and I marvel at the freedom that we had to express our thoughts and engage with big subjects.

This Thursday, my son nervously waits his A-level results, coincidentally in very similar subjects. But because universities, which have done so much to narrow the richness of the sixth form experience for students, make offers on only three subjects, he very reluctantly dropped English Literature in the midst of his upper-sixth year.

Apparently, three is better than four. Like all students studying A-levels, he had not one set of exams at the end of his upper sixth, as did I, but four sets, punctuated by regular coursework exams. He loved his teachers, but the quality of his academic experience was far poorer than my own. Rather than studying a broad sweep of history, he was instructed in narrow, disjointed slices, where learning how to phrase his answers correctly to ensure maximum marks was the rule of the game.

The introduction this year of the A* grade at A-level, supposedly to allow universities to discriminate better between the legions of candidates with three A grades, put added stress on him, to the detriment of his broader intellectual development. His constant concern was second-guessing the examiner and writing exactly what the rubric said would deliver top marks. Originality and personal engagement had no place.

This experience echoes that of many, as academic rigour and zest have been squeezed out of British schools over the past 25 years.

There is a conspiracy of silence about the impoverishment of academic quality and originality, as so many stakeholders are the beneficiaries of the dumbing down: schools, who see their results rise year on year; universities, who thrill to the faux simplicity of the GCSE and A-level grade regime; exam boards, who have happy customers, government, who have quantitative proof of annual improvement and value.

Article From The Daily Telegraph - Monday 16th August 2010