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A-LEVEL RESULTS

The British press debates whether the record number of A-level passes mean the exam has been devalued

The Mirror

THE JOY all over the country as youngsters saw their A-level results was wonderful. Each success was an individual achievement, but together they were an even more fantastic achievement. These were the best ever A-level results and a cause for real celebration. However, they were tinged with bitterness. The mean moaners were sniping away, suggesting that the only reason the results were so good was that the exams were easier. There is not the slightest evidence for these outrageous claims. But there is a lot of evidence that today's sixth-formers work a darn sight harder than their parents did.

Birmingham Post

A CONSPIRACY involving politicians, educationists and universities, examiners and teachers would have us believe there has been no devaluation of the "gold standard" of the A-level. There are too many careers at stake and too much money involved to say otherwise. Despite 17 years of rising A-levels the truth, as most employers will confirm, is that many young graduates lack even the most basic skills. Universities find themselves having to teach their students basic rules of literacy and numeracy. As long as more people pass more A-levels, the conspiracy will go unchecked. A whole generation of young people will be short-changed by a system based on the pressure for money and prestige. Either our schools are brilliant seats of learning and pupils are genuinely better educated than at any time in the past, or the educational establishment is cheating. We all know which it is.

The Express

The relentless rise of the pass rate is remarkable. Yet even that is not enough to explain the extreme reluctance among educationists to accept that schools might actually have got something right and their pupils really are doing better. Publishing results has put enormous pressure on schools to encourage better teaching, while the increasingly competitive workplace means pupils are more aware than ever of the importance of study. These facts alone could explain the rise.

Daily Telegraph

THOSE WITH a vested interest in A-level inflation protest - too much - that there is no evidence of decline. In fact, the evidence all points in one direction: there has been a cumulative erosion in the academic rigour, and hence in the value of the A-level. This is particularly true of A and B grades, the proportion of which has risen by more than a third in the decade since GCSE replaced O-level. The better universities are not fooled: they must make up the ground that is no longer covered by schools. Students who now arrive at college with excellent A-levels are six months or more behind the 1989 cohort, and are often obliged to re- sit first-year exams. Nor are employers (as opposed to the ever-gullible CBI) impressed by statistical fairy tales. For them, A-levels served to separate the high-flyers from the ordinary. If they no longer do this, they are useless.

Financial Times

The further improvement this year in the A-level pass rate masks some long-term trends with worrying implications. The best students are opting for more traditional subjects, such as classics, science and languages - and they get higher grades. The less-able turn to vocational courses, such as TV studies, business and computing, and they do worse. This year's results suggest the chasm between the academic and the vocational is widening. At the same time there is a continuing trend towards specialisation. Those aiming for the top universities are choosing a narrow combination of subjects to achieve the formidably high grades now required. Britain's business leaders are right to mourn these trends. Vocational skills should not be shunned by the best students, and scientific knowledge should not be the preserve of boffins.