The Spectator

Hard lessons

The reform mission was started by the Cameron government — May needs to finish the job

issue 26 August 2017

George Tomlinson, the post-war education secretary, declared that politicians should leave exams to the teachers because ‘the minister knows nowt about curriculum’. Today, however, the curriculum seems to be in a state of permanent revolution. The new GCSEs, for example, are marked on a nine-point scale: a grade of 7 or above indicates what used to be an ‘A’. For every five students who hit the 7 threshold, only one will get 9, the top mark. How employers are meant to understand this is another question.

The GCSE overhaul is the latest of a series of reforms, started by Michael Gove seven years ago, which are intended to ‘restore confidence’ after years of grade inflation. During the Labour years, ministers denied that exams were getting easier. They insisted that the proportion of As had risen over the years because the quality of education had improved. If that were true, Britain would not now be the only country in the developed world where numeracy among 16-24-year-olds is lower than it is for 55-65-year-olds.

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