History of the exam Pt 3
Education Reform, ESOL, FE, HE, In The News, Pre-School, Primary Education, Secondary Education Sunday, March 4th, 2007
Why are there so many exam boards? The Edumonolith is the supplier of patronage, we know, but is it really necessary to have exams tailored to every level. Learning doesn’t happen in such a cosy way so why then do we still persist with levels and grades? One exam level to join them all, please. Life isn’t a system of levels rather it is success or fail. You can either write an essay or can’t and telling someone they are level what-not is ridiculous and patronising. If levels are required then just incorporate into the one exam. If you have exercises of increasing difficulty in one paper then the progress made will tell you all you need to know about the students’ ability. More importantly, it will allow the student to decide what he/she is ready for, will allow for spiky profiles and empower him/her.
Think of the time and cost savings of having only one exam to sit every year. Of course, exam bodies will protest and peddle misinformation about the need to have graded levels but…