what is the point of exams today
what is the point of exams today
The ft wrote an article on ‘what is the point of exams today’. ( a link at the bottom). We feel that there are lots of valid points and feel we should accompany the article with some point of what is the point of secondary school exams. With the idea of going back to school increasingly seems far. While South Korea has a second wave of the virus as schools go back. It is increasing likely that there will be no school until September. As an Exam Centre we see a great deal of pupils outside of the mainstream who in part are totally lost to the process and feel exams are done to them.
The article quotes an A level student who says they spent two years of their life wasted now these exams are cancelled. So lets take the opportunity to sit and consider the point of exams which go on throughout a young person's life.
We all know that to get on in the real world does NOT require the skills of regurgitating crammed memorised knowledge that exams ask of you. It is the fundamental skill that exams require to succeed and thrive within them. Thus, the whole exam centric school days need blending to become more nuanced and reflective of the challenges that young people now face in the world. The lofty ambition now surely is let the education we give the young provide them the mind set, flexibility and way of thinking that suits them to thrive in the future work environment. There is no better time to have this debate than now. We have discussed this previously here on why have exams in the first place.
The challenge we face is that exams have become the justification of the whole educational framework. With the milestones and pathway to adulthood seared within it.
Clearly this framework cannot be brought down completely. Instead we should pick out the best bits. The bits that are most pupil friendly and pupil led. E.g. Pupils choosing when they want to sit the exams. Schools not being punished for pushing pupils to pass exams years early if they are ready.
Objectives, key performance indicators, performance appraisals are all things that happen a great deal in real life. So exams should reflect this.
In technical and professional roles the idea to memorise tasks and skills is key. However, now with both online and team work rarely does memory come into it.
What adults face is the self discipline to finish tastes and long range effort while being flexible along the way. The open book idea of an exam or a series of tests would reflect that. Business schools do it and we should look for pupils in secondary schools to increasingly promote the pragmatic, problem solving, referencing that the modern day workplace can be reflected in exams.
The Association of Schools and College recently pre virus published a paper saying that13 percent of their members think GCSEs and A levels should be retained in their current form. After the cancellations the association conformed to its members that 'for those who believe the current system is inappropriate, now is the time to find and show an alternative world is possible.'