The Press Is Not Impressed by Falling School Standards in Britain

A few days before this year's exam results [among school children in Britain] were published, the schools standards minister, David Miliband, tried to pre-empt suggestions that standards are falling. If he had taken notice of recent press reports, he could have saved himself some embarrassment.

The reports appeared in a number of large papers and included the following:

3 May: The Daily Telegraph reported on a study by Professor Alan Smithers. He found that the oft-quoted PISA survey (OECD, 2001) which, among other things, showed pupils in England ranking eighth out 32 nations in maths, was flawed. (Other academics have reached similar conclusions.)

4 May: The Guardian reported that: 'The army is planning to pack a third of its potential recruits off to further education colleges for basic skills classes because they barely have the reading age of a seven-year-old.' 'Two fifths of the army's intake fail basic training because of lack of basic skills. The problem is now too big for its own teachers to address.'

30 May: The Sunday Telegraph reported on its own survey of 1,309 children aged between 10 and 14 from 24 different schools. Asked about D-Day, only 28% knew that it was the beginning of the Allied liberation of occupied Europe. More than 1 in 4 did not even know that D-Day was an event in the Second World War.

1 June: The Daily Mirror reported the results of its survey among 1,000 under 25-year-olds. Only 6% correctly answered seven basic questions about D-Day and 73% did not know what it was, when it happened, or who was involved.

20 June: The Sunday Telegraph reported that the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority had again reduced its pass mark in the national tests for 11-year-olds in English. When Labour came to power, children needed 57% to reach the standard. This year's 11-year-olds needed only 41%. So children could get most of the questions wrong and still reach the required standard.

27 June: The Sunday Telegraph reported the results of some 'World Class Tests' in maths, aimed at the top 10% of 9 and 13-year-olds. The failure rate in Hong Kong was 3%, in America it was 37%, in Britain it was 42% and in Australia it was 80%.

18 July: The Sunday Telegraph reported on a survey of university vice-chancellors. Forty eight per cent had been forced to provide special lessons in literacy and numeracy for first-year students. Two thirds stated that extra numeracy classes were now 'the norm'.

5 August: The Daily Mail reported on a BBC poll of 16 to 24-year-olds. Almost half of those questioned could not identify William the Conqueror as the victor in the Battle of Hastings.

5 August: The Daily Mail reported that almost 600 students with fewer than three A-levels at grade C had gained places at medical schools, despite huge competition from better qualified applicants. This is because universities receive additional funding for students with fewer than 3 grade Cs.

18 August: The Daily Telegraph described David Miliband's claim of consistent standards as part of a new language: 'Milibabble'.

19 August: The Daily Mail reported that examiners marking GCSE English literature for the OCR board had been banned from penalising poor spelling and grammar. 'They are forced to hand out top A* and A grades to students whose work is peppered with elementary mistakes and soap opera slang.'

19 August: The Times published an article by an examiner, Patricia Voute. She explained that 'grade inflation is a reality and it benefits only students at the lower end of the spectrum: many who do not deserve to pass are awarded E and D grades.' But the most able students are penalised, because the system does not allow them to excel.

On 22 August, The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The Mail on Sunday and The Sunday Express carried major articles questioning standards. Spinning had seriously backfired!

Source: Campaign for Real Education, Newsletter No 53, Summer 2004