Rant of the Week: The A-Level "fiasco"

And now we have a special new feature on my blog...a rant of the week entry!

Oh yes, finally I can vent my spleen in public. And what better way to kick this new chapter off than on the subject of A-level results.

I remember one day in 1997, the trepidation with which my intrepid group of friends and I ventured out of the deathtrap known as "Bob" (a green Y-reg Triumph Acclaim) and into College, knowing that when we came out, our lives would be changed forever...OK, that's a bit overdramatic, I know, but it was pretty important for us - our A-level results were going to determine whether we ended up at the Uni or job of our choice, or instead plunged us into St Bobbins' School of Needlework for the Terminally Dim. It meant a lot to us. And certain newspapers and commentators conspired to dump copiously over our achievements.

To come out and see the "outraged" headlines of certain rags that "A-Levels are too easy", and that there was a Government conspiracy to ensure the "Dumbing down of our youth" left me foaming at the mouth. Do we sense a bitterness from them? How many of the people writing these articles did badly at school? How many missed out on their A grades because they were too cool to study? I cannot believe they are STILL persisting with this pathetic and irritating denigration of the achievements of school children.

What kind of country do we live in when we complain because people are too bright? You cna bet all the money you've got that if the A-level pass rates started to fall, these same venemous little sh*ts would be up in arms claiming "Teaching Standards are Plummeting", and "Schools Failing". It's utterly pathetic, outrageous and wrong.

There may BE a case for A-levels getting easier. Certainly teaching nowadays is more geared towards getting results and focussing purely on exam syllabus material rather than subject-wide analysis. But I think it's a little childish and cruel to trumpet this on the front pages of our newspapers for all the world to see in the most lurid way possible. As usual, our press has failed to be socially responsible in the search for sales and shock value, and has ended up being utterly reprehensible.

There we go. A bit of a brief rant, as it's late and I need to get out of here. But hope you like it and agree with it.