The GCSE and A level exam cancellation

GCSE and A level exam cancellation was a serious mistake

The GCSE and A level exam cancellation illustrates how badly the British Government and intuitions treat exam taking. The wholesale cancellation of exams is a mistake. As discussed in a previous blog. We explore a little more in the relationship the British Government have with exams. They see it as it is nearly all for their own sake. Nothing to do with the candidate or pupil. It is as if the candidate has only the privilege to sit the exam on the behest or request of the British Government. The attitude is unbearably remote, top down, bog awful. The decision to cancel the GCSE and A level exams just goes to show how rotten the whole thing is. The way the British  do GCSE and A level exams in this country is not fit for purpose. It is only fit for Victorian schools along with quango exam boards who dictate when and where pupils sit exams according to what the school says not when pupils are ready. 

This attitude goes beyond schools and sixth form colleges. It is how universities sit their internal exams. It is the extra ordinary poor value for money that humanities courses at schools and universities provide. Disruption looks like it is coming. its is the 3 or 4 years of university courses providing weekly lectures  in halls and libraries at eye watering costs when the alternative is quality lectures online.  The current Government is not going to hear the end of the cancellation of the exams in 2020.  Exams by their very nature are a form of social distancing. Most of the marking too is done remotely. They could have easily opened up the exam halls. This decision will haunt them throughout this parliament. It will be seen as an appalling lack of judgement, storing up trouble in the short and long term.