I can’t help but wonder how many older TES readers went, like me, to exam board meetings pre-1997 and were told that the board was under pressure from the government to ensure that exam pass rates improved year on year. Ever since the last election, Michael Gove has blamed exam boards for something that stems from the last Conservative government. What is clear - even to a mathematician like me - is that pass rates cannot rise year on year forever, so something has to change. But if you introduce change, you have to try to justify it. What better way to do so than have a go at exam boards, teachers and pupils?

Mike Rath, Barnstaple, Devon.