As August draws to a close and signs off with its
traditional bank holiday weekend here in the UK, the dust is settling on the
excitement that comes from pupils receiving their GCSE and A-Level exam
results. The stats showed that whilst the proportion of students receiving the
highest grade attainable (A*) declined for the fourth year running, in
both GCSE and A-Level exams, the overall pass rate saw an improvement.
For many years it had become a running theme that
with parliament disbanded during August the big "silly
season" story would always be the declining
standards in school and college exams or the improving intelligence of British
children (depending on which way you looked at it). However recent years have
seen fluctuations in the once ever-rising line chart of exam pass rates meaning
the water has become more muddied and we can no longer stick a nice,
neat soundbite headline on the annual reports on exam results, with news outlets
now looking deeper for their analysis on the figures.
Ultimately it's very difficult to determine whether
exams are getting easier or students are getting better at passing them because
by their very nature we can't measure like for like exams each year (dish out
the same exam more than once and it is no longer a fair test so its pass rate
will inevitably rocket). What's more where you have exams in subjects such as
the humanities or arts where the answers aren't always black and white, the
benchmark by which you measure success or failure must continually be
reassessed.
With the rising cost of further education set
amongst a stagnating economy it had been predicted by many that university
applications would drop however it would appear that the threat of debilitating
debt levels are not putting off Britain's youth and instead this year has seen
a record
number of applications to tertiary
educational institutions. In these austere times where youth unemployment
is as high
as its been for 20 years and government
cuts to welfare mean there is little choice but to rely on the support of
family after finishing at sixth form college, it seems that burdening yourself
with upwards
of £44,000 worth of debt (as has become
the average UK debt burden for graduates) is still preferable to joining the
ranks of Britain’s
1.85m unemployed.
Mind you, when some 45p in
every £1 of student loan is never repaid perhaps students view the odds of their ever having to actually meet
their ultimate liability as favourable enough to take the gamble. After all,
what’s the alternative in a country that’s not providing any jobs for young
people?
It could also explain the rise in popularity of summer
jobs abroad for students, as those in
between college and university, or even between years of their chosen programme
of study, seek to broaden their horizons yet further in the hope of making
themselves more employable for that day when they are faced with making a
living and no longer tied to academia. Statistics show that being able to boast
of meaningful gap year experiences or volunteer work on a CV can have
a significant effect on the chances of a
candidate being offered a job so there’s every reason to make the most of such
opportunities if you’re afforded them.
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