Q and A
Sir: Dr Rhodes Boyson (3 January) writes of the rejection by teachers of Mode 3 or cse. He may well be accurate with regard to the London area; I do not know. But the work of other Boards, and particularly that of the West Yorkshire and Lindsay Board, offers a very different picture.
The 1969 percentage entries of the wytm in all subjects, were: Mode 1: 30 per cent; Mode 2: 14 per cent; Mode 3: 56 per cent (an increase of 6 per cent since 1966). In English alone 60 per cent of the candidates were entered for Mode 3, and of these 62 per cent followed the procedure of Mode 35, in which the school's examination or assess- ment is validated by an inter-school Assessor and moderated by the Board.
Teachers in West Yorkshire have chosen Mode 3 for the following reasons: a) In a comprehensive school some less able pupils can be assessed but not examined; b) Each • school and each teacher feels a need to diagnose the needs of a group of children and to base a syllabus and an assessment scheme upon these needs; c) Mode 3, being completely teacher-controlled, is the most flexible way of testing; d) The increasing pro- fessionalism of teachers now means that we can stand on our feet more and more, without the crutch of external examinations; e) With Mode 3 we have no 'exam backlash': teachers decide for themselves what the syllabus is and teach to it. The fear of 'the examiners' and the game of beating them are gone. If, that is, we believe in ourselves.
Walter Hampston Headmaster, Chaucer Comprehensive School, Wordsworth Avenue, Sheffield 5
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