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School League Table Farrago
When I first became aware of this "scandal" which caused our friend to choke on his cornflakes I was not blogging. But I find myself agreeing at least a little with this Tory Cllr Iain Lindley of Salford City Council, but mostly disagreeing (phew!). Though I do disagree with him far more on the alleged Hazel Blears selection scrap non-story op cit for which he appears to be Iain Dale's source.
Essentially some schools have cottoned on to the fact that they can enter students for certain BTecs and GNVQs that are reckoned to be worth FOUR GCSEs and thereby get vocationally but not academically gifted and talented within reach of five passes. Which is something I've got a lot of time for. Though I suspect Lindley doesn't. But mixing the two types of qualifications up in one table really isn't at all helpful.
The newer measure of "five good GCSE passes including Maths and English" is going to be much more useful. And there should be another measure to be proud of on the vocational side. So in fact, Cllr Lindley, these latest changes are part of the evolution of the 11-16 qualifications towards something more useful.
League tables haven't appealled to me much. They academic ones can cause the least and most able to be abandoned.
But if we're going to look at some I prefer those referred to here from the OECD which show that Finland - with universal comprehensive education, little or no public testing, continuity at community schools 6-16, and equally valued vocational and academic routes as Mr Tomlinson proposed for us - well, they knock the socks off our own schools. More here from the BBC whose handy heavenly Helsinki picture is above.
Their boys and girls perform equally well throughout the age range and in all subjects. And Finnish English, Maths and Science results all top the OECD league consistently.
If memory serves they have 98% staying on at 16 and 68% going into Higher Education. Double our figures.
So how about it Iain(s)? Universal comprehensive schooling? No selection? No single sex or faith schools?
1 comment:
I don't have a problem with the GNVQ qualifications, Chris - they are a welcome step forward.
However, their value is not equivalent to four GCSEs. I finished my own GCSEs in 1999 (youngest Councillor in Salford and all that) and it was around that time that my school took up some pilot intermediate GNVQs. They were worth two GCSEs and took up two options when we chose our key stage 4 courses at the end of year 9. Today's GNVQs are no more rigorous nor more time consuming than they were then, yet they have inflated the worth to FOUR GCSEs.
Some kids are leaving Salford schools now with 14 GCSE equivalents - 14 genuine GCSEs is too high a workload for all but the exceptionally talented and committed. All my GCSEs are at grade A or A*, but I only have 10...
The proof of the pudding is that these kids are going to go on to further education with their "five GCSE equivalents" and expect to have a good choice of advanced courses. They will be very disappointed when they get there - and that is the real con!
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