The furore over GCSE exam results was inevitable once the decision had been made to stop the year-on-year success rate of students.
As has been said by some, there has to be a differentiation between students of different abilities. Any exam which achieves close to a 100% pass rate must be largely worthless. When too many candidates gain the top grades, it suggests that the exam is too easy and the very best candidates are being short-changed.
Whether or not there has been any element of unfairness in the way that this year's results have been graded is something I don't know. I do know that the ridiculous comments of at least one head teacher, to the effect that some students did not achieve their 'predicted grades', are almost impossible to believe. If schools are able to accurately predict the grades that will be achieved, why have the exams in the first place ? Indeed, the whole practice of telling students their predicted grades well in advance of the actual exams must surely discourage most from making any extra effort - "If I'm predicted a 'C', that must be all I'm worth" will be the message ringing in their ears.
The GCSE exam always has been a mechanism for schools and governments to use in their ceaseless pursuit of supposed perfection in a system that is actually shot to pieces;.this socialist nonsense had to stop at some point and this appears to be it. What we need to see now is a return to the days of the 'O'-level, an exam that did mean something and led students on to their 'A'-level studies as a natural progression. The GCSE exam as an attempt to introduce a test that could be applied to all subjects, academic and vocational, has failed. Throw it away and start again, and give the next generation of children some hope that their years at school will produce some worthwhile qualifications.
And while we're doing this, let's get rid of the vast number of 'universities' that are nothing more than overblown technical colleges offering worthless degrees in pointless subjects.
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