Daily Express - Breaking news, sport and showbiz from the World's Greatest Newspaper
Newspaper Cover Page
Our Paper

Front and Back Pages, E-Edition and Back Issues...
Weather
 3°C
London
Horoscope
Thursday 8th January 2009 Make us your HOME PAGE  What is RSS?
 
Columnists
Have Your Say - User Comments

ARTICLE SUMMARY

GCSE record as one in five gets top grades

GCSE pass rates will hit a record next week as a fifth of pupils gain the best grades.

HA!

02.09.08, 2:36pm

i knew someone would take an absurdly paranoid spin.

well done!

• Posted by: LeFinDuMonde • Report Comment

THEN IT CAN'T BE A MEANINGFUL TOP GRADE, CAN IT?

31.08.08, 3:05pm

This has nothing to do with education policy.

It has to do with moving grade boundaries to try to give Labour at least something they can say they can manage.

But those of us who teach and are on the receiving end of their nightmarishly absurd edicts know better.

• Posted by: Hector • Report Comment

GREAT SUCESS FOR LABOUR'S EDUCATION POLICY!

29.08.08, 2:38pm

more kids getting good grades... gosh, maybe labour has been doing something right these past few years after all!

yes?

it is good news, right?

or is there a negative anti-labour spin that can be put on here?

let me guess, the figures are made up, just like the crime statistics, right?

come on... surely beefsandwich can figure out a way to criticise an obvious success...

• Posted by: LeFinDuMonde • Report Comment

YES WELL DONE KIDS...

27.08.08, 6:46am

Marigold has a point.....in my day at school it was homework by the bucket load......tests all the time not even learning really just got bombarded with information which had no use for me at that time, and all that regime did for me was to hate school and all it stood for.
But later in life going to college then onto uni on my own free will now that was a different matter.I found i actually enjoyed learning and especially learning different aspects of our history which we never got at school. Which funnily enough they are going to bring in to the secondary school curriculum.
Now at that stage it involved free thinking. So the kids today have my admiration at least they are producing something positive for themselves which if supported will help them go along way...

• Posted by: cocklesandeels • Report Comment

GREAT BRITAIN

26.08.08, 11:29pm

My Gosh! I think the UK is turning the corner. Keep it up Kids!

• Posted by: poorboy • Report Comment

User Image

GCSE RECORD AS ONE IN FIVE GETS TOP GRADES

23.08.08, 7:53am

My 15 year old granddaughter Rebekah has taken 4 GCSE's a year early and gained 3 A's and 1B. She has done really well and we are proud of her. School seems to be much more relaxed and more fun these days than it was in mine, when it was common place to be ridiculed rather than encouraged. Well done to all the kids especially Rebekah.

• Posted by: Globetrottinggranny • Report Comment

DON'T LET THE OLD TIMERS MOCK YOU

22.08.08, 1:37am

I grew up in the Great British Empire. as a child I was taught a mantra. 'Keep them stupid and you can control them'. Well, it didn't work and rightly so. My Great British patriotic parents believed that Africans were no more intelligent or human than monkeys. I disagreed, and I still do. That's the same view men had here about women not so long ago. Is that your view. Do you support the Saudi Arabian's belief in the stupidity of women? Probably.

In the 1950's 1/3 of the Great British population believed that the sour faced old German Queen had been appointed by God, whoever HE might be.

You like me and like our kids are one click away from information the like of which none of our ancestors have ever been able to access. Whats the literacy rate now? and what was it 50 years ago.? Get real love.

• Posted by: brusselssprouts • Report Comment

User Image

BRUSSELS THE KIDS DID GREAT

20.08.08, 7:24am

But at GCSE level they are not yet aware of the restrained level of "education" that they are learning under.
I hope they will be perceptive enough to realise it as time goes by. Education does not encourage free thinking or freedom of expression. Education should be renamed as " mind training" or " brainwashing".
" Education. Education, Education ! " When these words were uttered we naively thought that our children would receive a better one.

• Posted by: marigold • Report Comment

WELL DONE KIDS, BETTER THAN US LOT

20.08.08, 1:26am

Well done kids. Never let these 'I had to walk 5 miles to school brigade', undermine you. Just remember that in the 1950's 1/3 of the population believed that the queen had been appointed by god.Thats how educated they were.

We can all see the papers of yesteryear and understand that it is a different world now. GCSE and A levels are just a stepping stone to further educaion. We are all having to be retrained. My father used to undermine me and then stand for the queens speech, complain about the demise of the 'empire', tell me we were the supior race and all that bollocks. Don't listen, you are vastly better educated than us. Feel proud, stand tall and understand that the world is one. Good luck.

• Posted by: brusselssprouts • Report Comment

User Image

SARACEN

19.08.08, 7:28am

Interesting and enlightening post.
Much of what you say rings bells with me.
My son recently graduated. He has always been bright, intelligent and a free thinker....on occasions being in dispute with a tutor or two.
He often remarked to me that that he was dissapointed that he had to stick quite rigidly to guidelines set by the tutors in order to obtain "best results". He even remarked that some students were so "bright" that they constantly liasoned with tutors , replicating the information to the point of it seeming that the tutors were telling them exactly what to do in order to achieve great marks.
It could even be said that..." The tutors cheated in order to achieve great results for the university"
I often worried about my son being in dispute, but I should have trusted him instead of doubting him.
He was right.
His uni and particular course has a great reputation. It would appear that the brightest of the students have found out the reason.

• Posted by: marigold • Report Comment

GCSE RECORD

18.08.08, 2:47pm

There are several references to paranoia on this discussion. Let's be open and honest: this government has made paranoia redundant, and cynicism is now just reality being commented upon.
I have over twenty years' experience of teaching in both primary and secondary schools, and I have seen both of my daughters p**** through a selective grammar school. I would think, therefore, that I am qualified to express an opinion on this subject.
Even Blair knew that education was one of the most important aspects of our society. Hence his opt-repeated mantra. He also knew that there was no way that his government, committed as it had to be to levelling down so as to create equality, could never actually achieve the kind of improvement that he was promising. The answer was obvious: simply make the exams easier and the marking more lenient. Thus it was that year on year we were treated to a remarkable improvement in the standards being reached by the new generation of super intelligent, hard-working, superbly taught wunderkinds. anyone who suggested otherwise, was deemd 'old fashioned' or 'out of touch' or 'not a team player'.

The fact is though, that the cynical manipulation of education over the past ten or more years has created anything but a well-educated younger generation, and the teaching profession itself is now being populated by the products of Blair's revolution. They are brilliant at using state of the art technology, and entertaining the pupils, but less certain of the role of books in studying, and how to encourage thought, debate and questioning skills. That of course, is the bottom line for New Labour and Blue labour under Cameron. The aim is to end the idea of education as a thought process; simply make it a round of jumping through hoops and meeting targets.

Does anyone believe that GCSEs actually mean anything nowadays? In three days' time I am going to be in the position of congratulating my daughter on her performance in her GCSE examinations. She will have a clutch of A* and A grades, with perhaps one B grade. She sees these as mere stepping stones on the way to A Level, which in turn will lead to her degree, for which she thinks she will be required to do some independent thinking and research. I haven't the heart to tell her that the government has nobbled the universities too, by its insistence on pushing 50% of young people onto degree courses. The mantra required from today's graduates? 'do you want fries with that?'

• Posted by: saracen • Report Comment

EXAMS

18.08.08, 11:51am

It never ceases to amaze me how we can achieve so many top GCSE exams yet we are told many students can't read or write. We really must be a brainy nation if we can convert dumbness into brains when we sit exams.

• Posted by: Tip • Report Comment

HOW COULD I MISS OUT A "G".

17.08.08, 9:12pm

Oh boy, the frosty king will sue me, "emigrant" will be cackling with glee, and I will forever go down as the illiterate who knocked educational standards. Must get over this lovely wine before banging the keys.

• Posted by: bluenote • Report Comment

TOP GRADES GALORE WITH KELLOGS.

17.08.08, 9:07pm

I have to admit, Ruhe03, although not covering all aspects, your comment was a succintly accurate and very valid one. I raise my gl****.

• Posted by: bluenote • Report Comment

LIBLAB

17.08.08, 8:57pm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1561065/GCSEs-are-'dumbed-down'-says-examiner.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article1522574.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article2073712.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/feb/22/schools.gcses
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6244942.stm


Liblab, people do not question the desire of the modern youth to study and p**** their exams. What they do question are the fundamental changes made to examination criteria that makes it easier to obtain higher examination grades.

The first Times article makes reference to set-play exam questions and they were on the way in a decade ago as I was finishing University. Subsequently when advising a friend's son on his GCSEs he displayed strong characteristics but in very limited areas of the subjects. Which confirms that the reason for 'improved' examination results lies elsewhere other than a surge in hyper intelligent children.

After all, with child illiteracy is at 1 in 5 for children leaving primary school. You cannot tell me that this is the perfect foundation for 'record results'

• Posted by: ruhe03 • Report Comment

Have your say on this article
HOROSCOPES
TV GUIDE

Todays best TV right here for you at the Express. • See Guide

TODAY'S CARTOON

The Political Cartoonist of the Year