A-level results: The "They're Getting Easier" Cliché

There’s another tradition to the release of the A-level results in this country; the litany of complaints about how A-levels are getting easier. You know the curmudgeonly types who come out with all the gems: “A-levels are getting easier, they weren’t like this in my day, kids today got it easy, never had it so good, I fought a war for them” and so on, ad fucking nauseam. I’m not going to engage with the “debate” about whether A-levels have got easier – not least because assessments of ease are all relative to the individual debating. No, instead I want to point out a couple of things.

Firstly, the idea that A-levels are getting easier is based on the notion that people are getting better grades. That could also be down to teachers getting better at teaching – or at the very least getting better at coaching their students through the examination process. Which, surely, is something to be celebrated.

Yet that isn’t going to convince the “they’ve got it easy” brigade, and it doesn’t entirely convince me. The problem, though, isn’t just about A-levels – the lack of respect for A-level results is a symptom of a wider problem: namely, the nature of education system in this country. Education has ceased, to a large extent, to be about education; instead it is about checking the right boxes and getting the right grades so students can go to university, and schools can get a decent position in league tables.

Don’t believe me? Take English Literature. You can do well in an English Literature A-level without having any passion whatsoever for English Literature. I know; I did so in 1997. All you have to do is read the relevant texts, work out what passages are crucial and rote learn the different interpretations of those passages. Your teacher tells you what is important about the text you’re reading, and how to interpret it. You don’t get to decide for yourself, and you don’t get given the skills to work out why a text is important in its own right by yourself. English Literature is not about cultivating a love of Literature; it is about making sure that you have read certain texts and read certain authors in a passionless, robotic way.

In order to improve education, we need to work out why certain subjects are studied. Take History – why study history? To learn from the mistakes of history seems to be the main reason. Yet with the Beatles becoming a component of some History A-levels, it is difficult to really see what we can learn from History in terms of avoiding damaging repetition. No, for me, History had its value not just in gaining knowledge of what went before, it also provides context for the modern age and, most importantly, how vital it is to question sources – where the sources came from, what agenda the writer might have had, and how those factors impact on the credibility of the source. Basically, it taught me to be discerning when it comes to dealing with different sources. History should be about more – about far more – than just rote learning facts.

It is also telling to consider what is missing from the education system in this country; many crucial subjects just don’t appear to be studied. Home economics would be a good example; when there is constant bleating about obesity, perhaps the education system could take some time out to teach pupils how to cook healthy food. Sure, you might not want to make it an A-level, but it is a damned important life skill. Likewise, many people study science subjects and Maths at A-level. Yet again, this seems more to be about rote learning that engaging critically with the subject. Would it be too much to require students to study philosophy as well? It underpins most other subjects – the sciences, Maths, History… Plus, philosophy should make people question the world, rather than just blandly accept it.

A-levels haven’t necessarily gotten any easier; rather, the education system has changed. Instead of being about educating people and giving them the skills they need for life, it has become about learning facts to pass an exam to check one of life’s boxes. And, as an aside my people, this mindset is becoming increasingly common at undergraduate level at university as well.

So bemoaning the apparent increasing ease of A-levels is to miss the fact that there is something fundamentally wrong with our education system; that through years of Labour misrule, our schools have become about box-ticking and targets, rather than education.

Besides, those taking A-levels do deserve praise if they’ve done well. After all, someone with straight A grades has done better than someone who has got straight D grades. They have achieved something and to piss on that achievement because the system is flawed seems unfair. Not least because the pupils taking the exams aren’t responsible for the system, politicians are. And since we vote for the politicians, we are also responsible for it. Spouting the “they’re getting easier” cliché is just a way to hide from the problems that are actually crippling our education system.