education is compulsory

"How will my child pass exams if they don't go to school?"

Let's take one step back and consider why this question is being asked in the first place. What are exams, what are they for, and most importantly, what use do they have?

Exams show that someone had enough knowledge of a particular subject on a particular day to satisfy an examiner. Maybe the student was lucky and the right questions came up. Any other day they could easily have failed. Does that prove that the student knew their subject? Of course it didn't. Say the student has a photographic memory, or is good at cramming three days beforehand and forgets most of what they've learned within a few weeks (like most of us would). Do they really know the subject? No. What about the student who really knows their subject but has exam nerves, was ill on the day, or concentrated on the wrong areas? They will be deemed failures when they are obviously not. So what do exams prove? Nothing. They are a convenient and divisive way of providing 'success' statistics for government, local education authorities, OFSTED, schools, teachers, but, least of all, the student. Their main aim is to justify the (lack of) progress of the mainstream education system in this country.

So why are we 'measuring' children at all in this way? What gives adults the right to put children through such an ordeal, usually against their will?