There's little doubt that school examinations are easier than ever before. All this talk that they are more robust and that pupils are brighter is utter nonsense. From the 1970s each and every year has seen a dumbing down in testing with pupils getting more and more aide in terms of preparation for 'beating the exam'. By this I mean that the pupil doesn't necessarily understand the subject at great length, but now knows the tools in which to pass it. Passed paper questions for example nearly mirror what you get in an examination.
The major problem is that many years ago pupils could be organised into bands quite simply by how successful or unsuccessful they were. My brother for example, had C, D, E in his A Levels compared to my B, B, C. Does that make him less knowledgeable than myself? Of course not. I would argue he is around 50 times more insightful and intelligent than me. He sued to answer 15-1 questions at a breeze whilst I struggled with almost all.
It's just in the past my brothers grades for example meant something. Even that 'E' in whatever he had was quite precious and demanded that a lot of work and knowledge needed to achieved to even reach this level. Quite honestly, his C, D, E would no doubt be A, A, A now. This in my mind is where the fundamental problem lies.
Children have been programmed and have been subject to propaganda that they are special, that they can't fail and that everyone can achieve something. This has led to decreased knowledge levels but a plethora of A grades across the board. Employers can now no longer see the wood from the trees. How the hell can they expect to get the best candidate when everyone has a dozen A* grades? The standard certainly hasn't increased at all in my opinion with knowledge, intellect and behavious at a lower standard than in the past.
It's this socialist 'everyone gets an apple' mentality flung in from the left that's destroying our children by brain-washing them that everyone is supreme. We are not preparing any child that simply hasn't got it, for failure in later life. Something that will make them stronger and get a non-academic job. A 'C' grade should be a damn fine achievement. The only difference between pupils now is that the best pupils just get a 'shinier apple'.
It's the same in areas such as discipline and attendance where the under-achievers get incentives to even attend school and the good children who tow the line get bugger all. In my school experience one of my best friends didn't miss a day in the entire Secondary School years. What did he get? A Parker pen! Meanwhile Planky down the road was receiving £5 vouchers here there and everywhere just for turning up and trashing the library. The system is arse backwards. Like always.
Instead of catering for the achievers and letting the chaff go to waste (as is life and natural selection), the focus is on the 10% who cause the maximum carnage whilst the achievers get less attention. Then, the difference between the best and worst is massaged as everyone gets decent grades being coached through past papers and linear generic questions where even getting your name right gets 10 marks.
One last anecdote. Our best pupil when I was in school in the 90's was a boy called Zeeshan Ashraf. He would regularly get 90-95% in all tests, exams, past papers etc. He was a little genius. But when given an old school past paper from a generation before, he came up short getting 70%. Don't ask what the rest of us had! It was an eye opener and proof that the system is failing children in duping them into believing that they can be something a academically and not preparing them for the harsh realities that is life and in some cases failure. It's exactly the same where everyone and their dog goes to University, does David Beckham studies, and wonder why life isn't going anywhere.
Now, no little Johnny can fail. Everyone gets a pass. But nobody gets jobs.
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