Island Life Magazine Ltd October/ November 2012 | Page 12

ANDREW TURNER MP The ‘all must have prizes’ approach should end In 1996 the controversial journalist and author Melanie Phillips published an influential book called All Must Have Prizes. The title came from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The Dodo marked out a circular race course and competitors started where they liked, ran when they liked, in any direction they liked and stopped when they liked. The Dodo declared the race over – and when asked who had won said: “Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.” Melanie Phillips likened our education system to the Dodo’s race. Rewards handed out willy-nilly and nobody allowed to feel they had failed. Now as I said, she is a controversial figure, but there are many who will recognise at least a kernel of truth in her argument. GCSE exams may or may not have got easier that controversy rages on - but it is unarguable that more and more pupils have been awarded higher grades each and every year. The various boards that set and administer the GCSE examinations seem to be taking part in their own surreal race - to the bottom of the pile. Some schools choose the easiest exams and allow students to re-sit parts of the exam until they pass. Much of the final mark is determined by coursework and the courses are modular – bite-size learning with students not understanding a complete picture. Coursework is often undertaken at home – so who knows who actually produced the work. That all leads to higher pass rates but makes it impossible to identify 12 www.visitislandlife.com genuine high-flyers. In July we heard from University Vice Chancellors (including Prof. Sir Leszek Borysiewicz of Cambridge) that many maths and science students are given ‘remedial’ classes on arrival at university. Of course, the real losers in this system of unrealistic expectations and false rewards are the young people. They have no mechanism to test their true abilities and skills, and if everyone is a winner then any sense of success and achievement is fundamentally undermined. With the Olympics and the Paralympics this summer that culture began to be questioned. Britain’s achievements on the sporting fields were outstanding and recognised internationally. If only the same were true of our education system. The most recent OECD league table of results in 2010 revealed that the UK fell from 24th to 28th position in maths, 14th to 16th in science and 17th to 25th in reading. That is why I was so pleased to hear the announcement that GCSEs in core academic subjects will be abolished and replaced with English baccalaureate certificates. Each exam will be administered by a single examination board and marked on final exams with no partial re-sits. It will certainly not be popular with some parts of the teaching profession, but if we are honest we know that unless we reward only genuine achievement then all prizes are meaningless, and our young people will continue to be disappointed and let down by ‘the system’. The Riverside Centre, The Town Quay, Newport IW 01983 530808 [email protected] www.islandmp.org