Directors Look Set To Attack Exam Results

Despite the recent focus on an employer-led skills agenda, it seems the Institute of Directors (IoD) is preparing to attack educational achievement when the latest A-level results are published. In it’s 2007 Education Briefing Book the IoD says that between 1997 and 2006, education spending rose 49% but the GCSE pass rate increased only 12.9%. They claim that despite an almost threefold increase in expenditure, there has been only a small increase in achievement from pre-1997 levels.

But the briefing says success rates in FE and work based learning have increased significantly, that the percentage of A-levels graded A-C has doubled since the early 1980s, and that the proportion of students awarded first class or upper second degrees has increased considerably. Despite this, the IoD are reluctant to say teaching and learning have improved. Their briefing says, “This is argued every year by teachers and their associations, and, indeed, may well be true. It is, however, hard to see how the claim could be convincingly substantiated.”

The briefing also reports the views of their membership. In a survey of 500 IoD members, 38% said that the quality of further education had worsened since 1997 against 32% who thought it had improved. For schools the figures were 49% and 32% respectively and for universities 41% and 29%.

The IoD say they have produced the briefing in order to provide a detailed historical analysis against which the forthcoming GCSE and A-level results can be judged. Call me sceptical, but I don’t expect them to say anything positive.