Rant number 244
Year upon year at around this time, there is controversy about the GCSE exams.
The story, for quite a while has been the same.
Students are doing better in exams in general. It's been an upward curve for years.
There could be a variety of reasons for this. It could be nutrition, upbringing or various other economic factors that are causing this. The thing is though, that all of this stuff is rather hard to prove.
It's far easy to say that exams are not as hard as they used to be - and that things are getting easier every year.
Now, like most people, I've only taken my GCSE exams the once. As such, I can't really reflect on whether it would be easier to take them now. I can only go by the information provided by those 'in the know' after all.
In order to quell the critics then, the education authorities decided to move the gateposts. They decided to make one particular exam a little harder - the English exam.
Now, I have no reason to argue with that. They are the guys in charge of education after all. I don't know if its fair or not, so I won't comment upon that.
What I don't understand though, is why they decided to change things - half way through a school year.
They've created fucking chaos!
You see, they've used the same exams in January this year - and also in May. That's fine. The thing is, someone who would have got a low C in January - would have got a high D in May. That's a big difference to someone who has applied for college or for an apprenticeships.
Now, maybe the former is right and maybe the latter is. Either way however, it seems grossly unfair that within the same school year - the goalposts could be moved in such a way.
Why couldn't they have waited until the end of the school year? Surely, that would have made more bloody sense!
Rant over.
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