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The chaos over this year’s A-level results began with a shake-up ordered by Michael Gove, says Peter Clarkson, while Paul Glendinning blames the reliance on algorithmic moderation. Plus letters from Chris Collins, Benny Ross and Terry Stone
A few years ago we had a very good system for A-levels (Ministers bid to quell revolt over England A-levels by allowing mock exam results, 11 August), which divided the syllabus and two-year course into four main parts and, at the end of each part, there was an exam for each quarter of the two years.
This was altered by that famous expert in educational method, Michael Gove, for no obvious reason other than whim and ideology. He changed it from the existing modular course to our children having to sit just one final exam – perhaps the old flawed system used when he was at the independent Robert Gordon’s College. Continue reading...