12、Exams
A-levels reprieved
Feb 24th 2005 From The Economist print edition
Big changes are coming to exams, but not the ones that teachers wanted
CRITICS of vocational education are snobs, obsessed with academic qualifications. That was the official line—but now reality is dawning. Ruth Kelly, the education secretary, this week described vocational qualifications as “second-class and second-rate”.
Sad, but true: if you are clever at school, you do lots of GCSE exams at 16, a bunch of A-levels at 18, and go to a good university. If you are not, you end up with rather few GCSEs, and instead do a confusing mix of qualifications with off-putting names like NVQ, GNVQ, AVCE, GSVQ, or BTECH; 3,500 variants are possible (nobody keeps a full count). If you get into a university, it is unlikely to be Oxford.
The current system of educating 14-19-year-olds is not just insanely complicated. It also pleases almost nobody. Employers complain that around a third of school leavers lack even the most basic numeracy and literacy. About a quarter of the least able pupils drop out at 16. The most able find it too easy to get A-grades at A-level, meaning that admission to sought-after university courses becomes a lottery.
Last year, in an official report, Sir Mike Tomlinson, a former chief schools inspector, proposed ingenious changes. The system should be more demanding, yet also more flexible, and more broadly based. The central proposal was to replace the existing exams with all-encompassing diplomas. That pleased the egalitarian-minded, who liked the idea of having the same kind of exams for both hairdressing and physics. But many—including the prime minister—regard even flawed A-levels and GCSEs as better than none.
So this week Ms Kelly binned Sir Mike’s central recommendation, saying that A-levels and GCSEs would stay. The educational establishment is furious. But three big changes are coming.
The first is to make basic maths and English compulsory. The current benchmark for 16-year-olds, reached by 53% of pupils, is five passes at C or above at GCSE. But a fifth of those skip maths, English or both. Under the proposed scheme, five GCSEs will be relabelled a diploma—but gaining passes in new “functional” maths and English will be mandatory. Those failing to reach this at 16 will keep trying, rather than leaving. From next year, school-performance league tables will be based on the new benchmark.
The second idea is to give disaffected pupils something to do outside school. From the age of 14, they will be offered placements with employers for two days a week. That sounds fine—although finding employers keen to take schools’ least-favourite pupils, and willing to overcome the legal and insurance problems of having minors pupils, and willing to overcome the legal and insurance problems of having minors on the premises, will be hard. The third change will be to allow clever pupils to take exams early, or even skip some of them altogether, and start more advanced courses while at school. That should help identify the brightest. It too sounds a fine idea, but even top private schools, with lots of money and good teachers, find it tricky to timetable lots of variation within one age-group’s lessons. Teaching a subject at the same level to bright 13-year-olds alongside struggling 17-year-olds, for example, is not a recipe for classroom harmony.
12、职业教育的批评者们都是些假内行，他们都局限于学术资格的探讨。这是官方底线—不过如今事实正在浮出水面。教育大臣Ruth Kelly本周就将职业资格描述为“二等和二流的”。
很悲哀，不过却是事实：如果你在学校时足够聪明，就会在16岁时参加一连串儿的中学毕业考试(GCSE)，又会在18岁时参加又一连串儿的中学高级水平考试(A-level)，而后进入一所不错的大学。如果不是，那么你的学生生涯就是以寥寥可数的中学毕业考试(GCSE)结束，取而代之的是很多令人糊涂的资格混在一起，都有着烦人的名字：像NVQ、GNVQ、AVCE、GSVQ以及BTECH;可能有3500个之多(没有人真正统计过)。如果你上了大学，也不一定就是牛津啊。
现今针对14到19岁少年的教育体制并非令人费解到不可理喻，却依然几乎没能令任何人满意。雇主们抱怨近1/3毕业生甚至缺乏最基本的计算能力和读写能力。约有1/4的能力最差的学生在16岁就辍学了。而能力最强的学生则认为在中学高级水平考试(A-level)中取得全A分数轻而易举，这意味着取得受欢迎的大学课程入学通知成了彩票中奖似的。
去年，前首席学校巡视员Sir Mike Tomlinson在一篇官方报告中提出了很有创意的改革建议。考试体制应当要求更加严格，也更灵活，基础更加广泛。该项提议主要在于以包罗万象的文凭取代目前的考试。这使得持平等主义观点的人们很满意，他们也同意这一观点—美发和物理也要有类似的考试。不过，包括首相在内的很多人认为即使A-levels和GCSEs考试有很多缺陷，也聊胜于无。
因此本周Ms Kelly也保留了Sir Mike的主要建议，她说A-levels和GCSEs考试将会继续。教育机构很是焦急。不过三大改革还是即将进行。
第一是将基础数学和英语作为必修课。现行的标准约有53%的16岁学生可以达到，是在GCSE考试中以C或C以上成绩通过5门。但是有1/5的学生都没能通过数学、英语，或者两者都没通过。根据这种方案，通过5门GCSE考试将会发给一个文凭—不过通过新的“实用”数学和英语考试将是强制的。16岁时未能达到这一标准的，将继续参加考试，不能毕业。从明年开始，在校学习表现排名表将以新的标准为基础。
第二是给不服管束的学生找点儿校外的事儿做。从14岁起，这些孩子将会被布置每周两天去见雇主。听起来不错—尽管寻找热心接受学校里最不招人喜欢的学生、并且愿意解决雇佣未成年人带来的法律和保险问题的雇主，会比较难。
第三个变革是允许聪明的学生提早参加考试，或者甚至完全不用参加其中一些考试，而在学校开始学习更高级的课程。这将有助于发现最聪明的学生。这听起来也是个好主意，可是即使是最顶尖的私立学校，有大笔的资金和优秀的老师，也认为在某个年龄段的课程中以一个课程表考虑到大量变化因素实在是勉为其难。比如，将一个科目以同一难度水平讲授给聪明的13岁孩子和学得比较费力的17岁孩子，就不是一个使课堂协调的好办法。
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