This blog will contain little structure, coherency or descriptive language. Apologies in advance. It's a stream of thoughts I have about the education system. It has been a part of my life for well over a decade, so I believe I am informed enough to make some reflections on the goings-on. Of course, nearly all of you reading will have been through some form of education system, so can relate to, agree or disagree with what I have to say. It's cliché, but I genuinely believe education is one of the most powerful tools in the world. Getting the system right is vital.
Long term readers will remember not too long ago I was preparing for my GCSE exams. Revision, many involving past papers, flash cards and mind maps served me well. Even though I had learnt chunks of the course as I went along and completed mini end of topic assessments, I only really began to properly revise for May exams in February. The two years of GCSEs were busy, but never felt unbearable. Some relaxing times did exist. With A-levels, the workload has shot up. I've mentioned this before, but, as it is a major part of my life, A-levels will inevitably feature in lots of my blogs. For two of my subjects, the content is all brand new, as I never studied them at GCSE. Politics and sociology are both utterly fascinating. It was sociology that partially inspired this blog on education, as that is one of the first topics we study. At the moment, education policy is the sub-topic we are examining, directly linking to politics. In terms of revision, what I hear from YouTube advice videos about A-levels is revise from the start. Forget your GCSEs, revise now! Of course, they are only being helpful. Everyone wants to do well. All forms of exams – SATs, GCSEs, A-levels & degrees – are hard. To give everyone the best chance of passing, people must revise content as it is taught. There must be endless exam practice. After all, the course is huge and only two years long. However, it's led to me wondering: is society teaching the next generation how to learn or how to pass exams? Exams have a vital place in society. There has to be some awareness as to how much progress someone has made at school. If want to ensure the education system is doing its job, a system we all (rightly) pay taxes towards, it must be held to account. This also allows governments to be held to account and thrown out when they fail. Apart from different exam boards, exams are the same for everyone. The content is similar. A school can be measured, a government can and, obviously, so is a pupil. The system of assessing someone by a final paper, with long questions, in a stuffy sports hall in May, does not work for everyone. We are all unique, have different strengths and weaknesses, meaning some will succeed and others will fail. Hence the emphasis on teaching people how to answer exam questions, using the content learnt, rather than spending more time exploring beyond the syllabus. I am only going from personal experience. Many of my teachers at all stages of my education have been excellent and some have raised this issue themselves. How can a balance between teaching and exam practice be ensured? Coursework attempted to fill this gap, expanded by New Labour, helping those who worked hard throughout the two years but struggled in final exams. A percentage of the grade would be based on work completed in class, most of which was in exam conditions. This allowed people to refine their work and gradually improve to gain an appropriate grade in their coursework, that would hopefully counter any poor exam results. Understandably, this was obviously controversial. In the early days, coursework could be taken home, so students, if they had parents with cultural and education capital, could access extra information. Gradually, this changed into controlled assessments, where work was strictly prohibited from being taken home. Still, people could still do research at home. Over time, particularly under the coalition government, the amount of coursework in subjects was gradually abolished. I experienced this in the new English GCSE (9-1). Previously, the amount of coursework was 40%. For my year, it was 0%. Then again, just because everyone sat the same exam, free from help in the boiling sports hall, doesn't mean it was fair. Functionalists (essentially right-wing people) believe in equality of opportunity and a meritocracy. They fail to recognize material deprivation, blaming failure on the so-called 'cultural deprivation' parents offer their children. If a school has less funding, lives in a poorer area, has fewer excellent teachers and a bad reputation, how an Earth is it an equal opportunity for students sitting exams? I don't know what the answer is. I doubt many in the Department for Education have the answer. The definition of an excellent education is itself unknown. The ban on new grammar schools opening should be abolished so, in areas that desire grammar schools, they are allowed to open. They don't help everyone, but give clever, poorer students access to a private school standard education. But this is the point. An excellent education – whether that be learning amazing things, preparing for tests, meeting new people or developing as a person – shouldn't just be for those who can afford it. Every person, whatever their gender, ethnicity, class or sexuality, must be given the chance to succeed. Serving the next generation must be the priority.
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