EDUCATION
Q and A
RHODES BOYSON
The new proposal for sixth-form examina- tions is a further attempt, ostensibly for the purpose of aiding university selection and the non-academic sixth-former, to tinker with our very successful sixth-form organisation. Three years ago it was majors and minors, two years ago it was elective subjects which we warded off, and now we are faced by Q and F levels. Can the schools never be left alone to do their job? Could the committees and councils which shower advice upon them not be better employed in producing answers to the real problems such as that only one in eight secondary schools has a graduate chemistry teacher?
Most sixth-formers now study two or three A level GCES for two years before proceeding to university, other further edu- cation, or employment. There are also in comprehensive schools growing numbers of non-academic sixth-formers resitting CSE and GCE 0 levels and proceeding from CSE to 0 levels after one year in the sixth. It is argued by the working parties of the Schools Council and the Standing Confer- ence on University Entrance that for the later students a Qualifying examination (Q) sat in five subjects after one or two years in the sixth would be a useful exam- ination. This same examination is also re- commended by the working parties for the academic pupils in place of the 0 level GCE examinations. It is suggested that this Q examination at the age of seventeen would be a more satisfactory predictor of expected university performance than 0 levels taken at the age of sixteen. For the second-year academic sixth, however, the working parties recommend the study, as now, of two or three subjects, with a Fur- ther (F) level examination set at the end of the year in place of the A level examination which would disappear.
Any attempt to provide the same examina- tion for both academic and non-academic sixth-formers is doomed to failure and this is recognised at fifth-year level by the existence of separate CSE and GCE (0) exam- inations. No examination paper with any real meaning can be set for pupils varying from the almost educationally sub-normal to the brilliant: it is not a question of intro- ducing different grades of performer but of the depth and breadth of the questions set. It is also doubtful whether the non- academic sixth-formers would have any use for the Q examination since most of them are simply picking up odd subjects at CSE and 0 level to enable them to enter the craft or career of their choice. and encour- agement for them to stay at school longer has doubtful validity.
The effect of the implementation of the suggested Q and F examination structure on the academic pupil, who seems in this egalitarian age almost to have to apologise for his existence, could be disastrous. It is intended that he should not sit 0 levels but that his headmaster should attest that he has studied eight subjects until the age of sixteen. The continuance of the study of lye subjects for a further year, of which English and Mathematics are desirable but lot essential subjects, would neither satisfy ;pecialisation nor general education. Most mpils enter the sixth as keen to jettison a lumber of subjects as the 'fifteen plus'
leaver is keen to jettison school study alto- gether. This is a sign of maturity which is being encouraged in all other fields of life and should be encouraged in education. The introduction of Q and F levels could actu- ally result in some fifth-formers leaving at the end of their fifth year because they were not allowed in the sixth form to narrow their subjects to their real mature interests.
The limitation of the study in depth of two or three subjects to only one of the sixth-form years would inevitably reduce standards of attainment. To argue, as do the working parties, that the factual content of the subjects studied at F level will be re- duced but that the 'quality of study in- volved' would be at least as high as A level is to depart from the bounds of reasonable prediction. The 'quality of study involved' only arises from depth as well as breadth of study and a similar argument to that put by the working parties could claim that a university honours course of present stan- dards could be completed in one or two years simply by the reduction of the factual content. Perhaps this is what the Depart- ment of Education and Science had in mind when in one of their thirteen suggestions to university vice-chancellors for the reduc- tion of university expenditure they sug- gested that good students should complete their degrees in two years.
It is very doubtful whether the 'seventeen plus' Q examination in five subjects would be any more successful in predicting univer- sity success than 'sixteen plus' 0 levels. Every year I have correlated the 0 rind A level results of pupils in my school with the surprising conclusion that, apart from out- standingly brilliant students, a pupil with two 0 levels is not less likely to do well at A level than a pupil with three or even four 0 levels. The careful estimates of A level grade made by the two or three sub- ject teachers after pupils have spent one year in the sixth are more likely to be of use to universities than any number of Q levels. The obsession of many university faculties with high grades would probably mean that, in many cases, grades obtained at Q level in subjects which pupils were not continuing to F level would be ignored.
The working parties further suggest that the new examinations, including F level, should be 'newly designed examinations capable of reflecting the best experience in this field'. I originally feared that this meant that traditional-type essay questions were 'out' and spot-the-right-answer tests would be 'in'. Fortunately a careful reading of the joint statement shows that this is not the case and the new fashion is a form of course and continuous assessment. This also has dangerous possibilities. Such assessments are not objective and they are likely unduly to favour those boys and girls.who are lucky enough, either at home or at school, to re- ceive extra help in the presentation of their course work. The way teachers have re- jected Mode 3 or CSE is a sign that teachers on the spot favour traditional type examina- tions whatever their leaders sitting on national committees say.
Perhaps Mr Short's recent outburst against examinations arose because he had glimpsed a preview of this joint statement. if so we have all wronged the Minister and we must now feel a sneaking sympathy for him. Should, by some mischance, these Q and F examinations, however, be intro- duced, the schools will attempt to absorb and realign them. On the introduction of O and A levels of the GCE it was intended that pupils would sit 0 levels only in the
subjects they were unlikely to sit at A level. Most schools, however, as a safety net for their pupils, put them all in for 0 level. Similarly most schools would continue to put all pupils in for 0, Q and F level and the end result would be even more examina- tions. This pattern of examinations at six- teen. seventeen and eighteen could be the death of the growing sixth-form liberal education experiments and could, through yearly examinations, put serious nervous strain on many sixth-formers. Alternatively an unscrupulous school could miss 0 level for their academic pupils, start Q levels in five subjects with five periods a week each from the age of fourteen while giving one lesson a week to three more subjects includ- ing Religious Education and Physical Fdu- cation and attest that all pupils had studied eight subjects to the age of sixteen. The extra staffing required for the Q levels could be a tremendous strain on the schools: separate classes would be required in each subject for pupils taking it on a two-year course and academic pupils taking it preparatory to F level the following year. Where the extra teachers could be obtained in Science and Mathematics to take this number of courses is difficult to ascertain.
Some of us in schools sitting in our studies occasionally see a strange and blind- ing vision of a minimum eight-subject ex- amination at 0 level which academic pupils must pass at credit standard in English, English Literature. Mathematics, a Science. a foreign language and an additional Arts subject. These schools and universities would be assured that all academic pupils had a good liberal education before they joined the exciting specialisation of the sixth. Older members of the profession in- form us that the matriculation system of the old school certificate fulfilled this end. Per- haps it's time the wheel came full circle and we returned all the teachers on second- ment to the Schools Council and elsewhere back where they belonged to teach in the schools. There might even be a few gradu- ate chemists among them.
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