On
the day of their results, A-level students have been told their passes are
‘increasingly meaningless’.
The
Institute of Directors (IoD) has condemned ‘rampant grade inflation’ as the
pass rate this year reached 95.4 per cent.
The
pass rate has now risen for 21 successive years, which Ruth Lea, head of the
policy unit at the IOD, says is symptomatic of endemic and rampant grade
inflation and exams that no longer test students.
"A-levels
used to be testing and highly discriminatory – gold standards selecting
undergraduates for a highly-selective university system – not any more,"
she said.
"They
are now designed for an age of mass entrance into universities. As the
university system has changed so have A-levels; they have been ‘dumbed
down’."
Yesterday,
the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said changing A-levels to a
European Baccalaureate system would create confusion and undermine the
confidence of companies recruiting new staff.
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The
CBI claims employers value A-levels as a benchmark which they know and
understand when they recruit.
