What costs more than pound;380 million a year, stresses thousands of teenagers, determines school league tables, and yet appears to be regarded as irrelevant by many universities? Answer: the English public examination system.
England has the world’s most examined school pupils, yet universities feel they need more information about their academic abilities before admitting them. You really could not make it up.
So to national tests at 7, 11 and 14, GCSEs and GNVQs at 16, AS exams at 17 and A2s at 18 must be added university admissions tests to help them discriminate between identically A* candidates.
Schools in Wales will do their best to help pupils competing for university places in England. But it will be hard to justify coaching one for the Cambridge maths test and another for Oxford’s. So the bright but poor, unable to afford tests or tuition, may be penalised once again for entrance to the best universities. At least some universities are developing a common exam.
Heads can see why potential medics and lawyers might need a specific admissions test. But, they say, admissions officers can get enough detail about exam marks to distinguish between the best students in most subjects.
How on earth did we get into this situation? Universities’
problems began when A-level marking changed so that candidates were awarded grades strictly on merit, rather than awarding only fixed proportions of As and Bs. Then botched A-level reform forced new exams on 17-year-olds and allowed grade-improving retakes. The Westminster Government instituted an enquiry into 14-19 exams - but bottled out of applying the recommendations.
How it will all work when vocational diplomas start in two years’ time is anybody’s guess.
