IMM wrote:

I read on the Teletext that some minister was slagging elitist people for
ribbing the A levels because lots of people passed them. They can't accept
that there are many brainy people about these days. Very true.

I expect that there is much the same proportion of brainy people out
there now, as there was a few years ago. IQ being a standard bell curve
distribution and all.

The ones who gripe are mainly middle classy types upset that the working
class kids can do better than their kids. Pathetic.

It think you will find the primary concern is that the exams might not
be as difficult as they once were. This has little to do with class,
since it devalues the achievement of all the pupils, and the merit of
the qualification for all, irrespective of class.

As an aside, while in a bookshop the other day, I picked up some of the
text books for A level computer science (or ICT as they call it these
days). I was a little disappointed to see that depth each topic was
explored to was almost trivial in comparison to what I would have
expected to see at A level. In fact it was somewhat less than that which
was expected of us when we did O level - let alone A level (in 1985/6).

While I accept this is not a scientific study, and has only has a sample
set of one, I can see why parents, employers and universitys are worried.

--
Cheers,

John.

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