HE: the Great Escape - Alan Harris-Reid - Page 6
Too little thought is given to the question "Are we preparing our children to be motivated, responsible, happy and looking forward to a life which they are in control of, and not ending up in a low-paid, dead-end job which they hate, but are doing just to 'pay the bills'?". Our children deserve better than that. It may have been more the case in the past that exam passes led to a higher probability of obtaining a 'better job' (whatever that means), but thankfully that attitude is changing now, albeit slowly. Training staff costs money, so once someone has even the most basic of skills that can be built upon, paper qualifications soon become irrelevant.
If you were a potential employer, who would you chose? The applicant with 5 GCSEs and an A level, or the applicant who has done rock-climbing, has taught themselves to speak Spanish, belongs to the local chess club, knows a bit about car mechanics and designs websites for hobby and profit?
If children want to take exams (without coercion from adults - we do NOT know better) in the subjects that THEY are interested in, let them do it in their own time, when they are ready. Look at the number of people choosing to go to evening-classes, college or university later in life. They have a keen attitude towards studying because it is their choice, and children should not be treated any differently. Why the hurry to get so many subjects crammed-in before they are 17? Most of them still have 80% of their lives still to go!
Many adults acknowledge they learned more about 'real-life' in the five years since leaving school than the 12-14 years they spent at school! It is currently estimated that around 20% of school-leavers at 16 do not have a 'basic grasp of the fundamentals of the English language and mathematics which would be reasonably expected of a person of that age'. Whatever these standards are (and I personally believe there should not be any dividing-line in this case - each child is unique) is irrelevant, but if a child has been subject to 15,000 hours of schooling, what has been going on during that time? The school has failed in its legal duty to provide an education for each child in accordance with their age, aptitude and ability. Anyone fancy suing them?