The day before A-level results are published, the Telegraph and the Independent report that traditional academic subjects, such as maths, physics and history are not being offered by a large minority of state schools. Here are the details:
‘Around one in seven schools – 264 in total – did not enter any pupils for A-level geography in 2007 – the latest available information – and a similar proportion failed to enter students for physics.
Figures also show that more than one in 10 comprehensives did not enter pupils for A-level chemistry, while six percent failed to enroll candidates for maths and seven per cent shunned biology.
A further 145 schools – eight per cent – did not enter pupils for A-level history.’
This is another indictment of A-level league tables – suggesting that the annual rise in the A-level pass rate is the result of the government encouraging weaker schools to take ‘soft options’, such as media studies, law and healthcare, rather than a genuine improvement in standards, which would see more state school pupils going to good universities to read academic subjects.
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