International News

Letter from London Reintroduction of entrance exams In Blighty it’s the time of the year when uncertainty over the reliability of exam results and the quality of the education system makes headlines. Every year at this time, Britons worry whether academic standards are too low, exams are too easy or too hard, whether the marking system is flawed, or teachers are somehow failing their pupils. All of this points to an unhealthy obsession with exam grades, and overall lack of confidence in the education system. With an increasing number of A-level students scoring top marks, there is concern over the adequacy of A-level grades as a university admission qualification, although at the moment they remain the key indicators of achievement and potential. Nearly 22 percent of students pass their A levels with A grades compared with less than 12 percent a decade ago. As standards continue to rise throughout the system, this produces a knock-on effect much higher up the educational ladder. In some subjects it is no longer considered sufficient to achieve a Master’s degree; only a Ph D will open the gates to top jobs. The trouble is that the specialism of A-level subjects is increasingly seen as too crude a yardstick to identify the brightest students. The question is how are universities supposed to differentiate between students who will benefit from further study and those who won’t when competing applicants have similar high A level grades. This is the reason controversial university entrance exams are being favoured in academia. Oxford university is all set to reintroduce entrance tests for history and English as a means of identifying the brightest pupils, although these days anyone who applies to an elite university is unlikely to have anything less than top grade A level scores. The new history entrance test is expected to be written by students in schools and colleges, allowing universities to limit the huge numbers of applicants before inviting candidates for interview. The university’s English faculty is sounding schools about a similar entrance test in English, though it will not be introduced before the 2005 admissions round. The decision to reintroduce admission testing comes nine years after the university abandoned its entrance examinations amid criticism that they favoured independent rather than state school pupils. Although university spokespersons insist the new tests will measure aptitude rather than knowledge, the switch is likely to provoke renewed criticism that the system will again favour those with privileged education, frustrating government efforts to widen access to elite universities. Officially the tests are intended to enable institutions to differentiate between candidates who seem to be equally well-qualified for admission, to provide a methodology of assessing the potential of students whose suitability might not be reflected in their A level grades, and to give students without a family tradition of higher education the confidence to apply for admission. Nevertheless they are a reminder of the class issue and the huge gap between well funded schools in wealthier areas of the country which produce pupils with…