A-levels and Monkeys

It is that time of year again; oh yes, those claims that A-levels are getting easier are being rehearsed and shouted up to the rafters once more. The favourite quote I've read so far this year is this one:

One director of A-levels, based in the North West, told researchers: "You could train a monkey to do the questions today."

Really? You could train a monkey to do the questions? Really? I doubt that, somehow. Monkeys are good at many things - including flinging their poo at each other - but I think it is a bit much to argue that they could sit an A-level exam. In fact, this claim is so bloody stupid that it makes me wonder about the sort of person who would make it. Is this man - with his Plant of the Apes style view of our monkey brethren - actually fit to be a director of A-levels? And besides, surely a director of A-levels should be able to do something about those exams if he thinks they are too easy?

Anyway, the problem isn't that A-levels are getting any easier*. The flaw seems to be with the exams themselves. They seemed to have stopped testing understanding of a subject, and instead demand rote learning. So it isn't the fault of the 25% of students who will get "A" grades this year - they've done what the subjects require, and have committed a lot of things to memory. And it isn't the fault of teachers - they've figured out how these exams work, and have given their students the required knowledge to go away and pass those exams. No, the failure is within the education system itself. A system that now favours teaching only so targets can be attained, and that the rote learning of information rather than the understanding of a subject. And a system that does very little to prepare students for real life.

So to summarise - congratulations to those who do well at A-level. You worked hard, and you have the grades to prove it. To those of you in charge of this country's "education" system - you might want to think about the flaws in A-levels, and what they show you about the education system as a whole in this country. And finally, a monkey couldn't do the questions on an A-level paper. And it probably wouldn't want to, anyway. It has better life skills to learn. Including learning how to fling its excrement at its family, friends and any gawpers passing by its cage in the zoo.

*Although A-levels were at their most difficult in the year 1997. When your humble author took four, and got three "A" grades and a "B", fact fans.