Not so long ago, ‘results day’ in England would see leading figures in education, from Tory ministers to National Union of Teachers General Secretaries line up to unequivocally congratulate young people on their achievements and celebrate rising standards. But with education increasingly like running up a downwards escalator, where you have to run faster simply to stand still, these days it’s become a bit more complicated and as much about managing the expectations of those missing out.
This year, the second full-year of A-level results since Covid has been a prime example. Well-orchestrated leaks to newspapers have reported up to 100 000 students missing out on top grades (as it turns out A*/A grades are down from 36% to 27%) and with the English results coming a week after a reduction in pass rates for Scottish Highers, the context for today’s announcements had already been set. So this morning Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has been able to tell students ‘not to be disappointed because you’ve done a great job’ with Labour’s Bridget Phillipson concurring.
A persistent message from government and exam boards has been of a return to ‘normal’. By this they mean a return to 2019 pre pandemic levels (this year’s grades are still above those). But even these results were subject to a ‘comparative outcomes formula’, imposed by Michael Gove over ten years ago. Part of the Coalition’s education reforms, this specified that grade distribution should be held in line with previous years. (Gove thought that New Labour had made exams ‘too easy’, because too many young people were succeeding.)
In reality, this was a return to a pre-comprehensive system of ‘normative assessment’ where students are awarded grades on a quota basis (in otherwords by comparison with others, rather than on the basis of what they know, understand, or can do). All this changed during Covid when with exams scrapped, teachers were consulted about their student’s ability and performance only to be accused of contributing to ‘grade inflation’ or being ‘too generous’. A message continually reinforced across national media today.
In previous times, most young people made relatively smooth transitions to the workplace, but changes to the occupational structure and labour market recruitment have meant that educational qualifications have become ‘high stakes’ for everybody not just a few. High grades are valued for what they will buy you, as much as any intellectual progress you might have made.
Most educators would consider teacher-based assessment to be vastly superior, but as the number signing up for A-levels increases every year (and this year there are more 18-year-olds in the population) then policing the system becomes almost impossible and exam board regulators are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Facing bleaker futures compared to previously, students are working harder. And with teachers better at coaching them to jump through hoops, performance levels are inevitably going to rise, but on the contrary regulators are under government instruction to keep grade rates down.
Meanwhile, for students forced to resort to ‘clearing’ by not getting the grades their first-choice university requires, life will be even harder, as many Russell universities say they are already full, having already offered ‘unconditional’ places, but much more likely recruited overseas students to boost their finances – estimates show that £1 in every £5 received by UK universities last year came from international students, while at some institutions tuition fees from international students make up a third or more of the total income.
It’s also reported that in response to the cost-of-living crisis, approaching a third of students who’ve applied for HE have considered living at home while they study. Yet at the other extreme, some of those wanting the ‘university experience’ find they are being accommodated miles from campus.
How low can it get?
Education, Economy and Society 
Another contributor to mental illness
Too true!
Marketisation at all levels of education has failed! Now ‘the business model’ may fail too as they are increasingly dependent upon overseas students to pay their exhorbitant fees in unis getting an increasingly name abroad
Please delete comment above which I had not completed before it whizzed off beyond recall! What I was going to say was that
There were comments on the BBC this morning that the devolved systems in Cymru/Wales and the north of Ireland for A Level grading were not being affected to the same extent as England’s attempts to bring grades down.
This raises the issue of whether (say) a B in an A level subject like History in Cymru/Wales is worth as much as a B in the same subject in England?
Of course in the past there were always claims that certain exam bodies were ‘easier’ in certain subjects than others and claims of schools ‘gaming the system’ to ensure best possibleproportionof highest grades. But this didn’t apply to entire countries and was easily disproved.
Scotland’s Higher qualification has always been inherently different to A levels but so were the university degrees and HE qualifications like HNC/HNDs they led to. The change in Higher grades awarded last week was much more at the margins than those in England today.
This national disparity may now also start being true between Cymru/Wales and England for qualificationsthat have same title and subject.
Is this the end of “UK education” and the rise of the primacy of disparate national systems within the UK state?