A-level results
A-level results were published today. A-level examinations are taken by 17 and 18-year-olds in the UK. Congratulations to all who were successful.
Once again, more students achieved top grades – A and A*, almost one in ten were A* - and boys pulled ahead of girls. More than 78% of students receive A* to C grades. The most examined subjects were mathematics, followed by psychology and biology, while political studies, law, and economics increased their candidate numbers.
Most university applicants received offers of places from their first-choice institutions. That is laudable, and hopefully the courses applied for will involve a degree of academic rigour, and be taught by competent, coherent, articulate lecturers. There are no guarantees, of course.
University degrees are not the end of the learning process, but the beginning of a progression into the adult world, where the prizes must be actively, sometimes aggressively pursued. Further degrees are commonly undertaken, and it is not unusual for graduates with higher degrees to make upward of seventy applications before a job offer is made.
It is time more rigour was applied to examinations. The country has drifted into a culture of rewarding all efforts, however feeble, with praise and acclaim. Encouragement is necessary at all stages of life, but somewhere the realisation that triumph is not always guaranteed has been lost, with the subsequent expectation that success is inevitable. Young people are not given any favours with such an attitude.
Many young people should never be encouraged to apply for university. Many drop out after the first year. There are other means of furthering one’s experience and would be more, if the money and effort expended on urging students to attend university had been used instead on apprenticeships.
Perhaps the pendulum will swing away from university education being perceived as the gold standard ambition of a young person’s life.
This is a very interesting post. It surprises me that the boys came in ahead of the girls. Thanks for this information and have a nice day today.
ReplyDeleteI agree. University can be an expensive time with no guarantee of a job afterwards.
ReplyDeleteUniversity was never an option for me, regardless of any academic aptitude I may, or may not, have had. My parents simply could not afford it.
ReplyDeleteThankfully I still managed to forge a career despite that and was fortunate to secure reasonably good employment over the 50 years of my working life.
Did you see the recent headline that University of Michigan was dropping grading in year one for the mental health of the students.
ReplyDelete"The University of Michigan announced a pilot program to replace traditional letter grades with "pass or no credit" for first-semester freshmen. Starting in fall 2027, the policy aims to ease the transition to college, reduce intense academic pressure, and help address student mental health concerns."
When my son was in grade school, for the first three grades they didn't get a letter grade.
DeleteMy sons never got an university degree they went to a trade school. They our buy there own home.
ReplyDeleteI think that I am picking up that the "you need to go to University" vibe is changing a bit now. the debt it brings and the struggle to get a job mean that people are thinking twice. Also the government is putting out little financial tasters to take people on and train them. for instance my charity can claim a few thousand if they take on and train someone for 12 months - maybe trying to make it easier for employers and young people
ReplyDeleteMy advice to a young person would be don't go to university, get a job and the first job does not have to be the perfect job, start work and find your feet and find your way. University may be required for certain professions, so be it, but otherwise go into work. Many of the big accountants are taking new recruits straight from sixth form and training them their way. That is the way it is going now.
ReplyDeleteAlthough in the States college admissions aren't determined by universal standardized tests, we have a similar problem with university education being prioritized over trade school.
ReplyDeleteAC speaks to the complexity of this issue. IMO, assessment has evolved (in Canada) mainly for the better but it still fails to provide fully accurate information to many young people about what to study, information that is more deeply garnered in hands-on experience/ work-study. Academic counselling has been cut to nothing here, but restoring and revamping personalized guidance would help young people know themselves better than they currently do.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100% with you on this one. We've made some very unhappy and unsuccessful people along the way.
ReplyDeleteYes, the news has been full of students receiving their 'A' level results ...
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
There are some people for whom continuing education is not the best route. Some people excel at trades jobs and should try that route. You are no less valuable than somebody at university.
ReplyDeleteHigher education is expensive and no guarantee that a person will find work in their chosen field
ReplyDeleteIn West Virginia, higher education (university) is a better choice for job stability. Trades here are not like in cities and densely populated places. So many people do their own work or have family to call on when there is need of a plumber, electrician, etc. My husband was a brick Mason and was laid off as often as he was working. He ended up with bad knees and no insurance or retirement. Unions are a good route, if you can get in one, but union guys here have to travel away from home to get work. Larry tried that; he had to stay away from home for months onend and after all those expenses didn't really make the great money people talk about. Local kids who don't go to college might get lucky, but many just drift from one low-paying job to another. There is demand for nurses, of course, which still requires a 4 year degree.
ReplyDeleteCollege offers so many options; my degree was in teaching but I ended up as a librarian. Few actually work in their undergrad degree field, but generally will end up with a more secure future. All my sons but one finished a 4 year degree; the other chose a military career. All own their own homes and have no mortgage and good retirements. Had they not gone to college or stayed in the military, odds here were against them doing well.
It seems that in most areas of the world the entire education systems need shaking up from top to bottom.
ReplyDeleteOn this, I could not agree with you more. Many "sub-issues" going on (i.e., the rewarding of all efforts no matter how feeble, the loosening of standards for university admissions, the push for all to go to university, etc.) but they all bespeak trouble for the generations ahead. In "my day," and "A" was for exceptional work; B for good/ above-average work; C was for average/satisfactory work, etc. And acceptances to quality universities were something to be worked for and not a given. All that has changed. I left my "professor-ship" largely for these very reasons. Rewarding mediocrity and elevating it to something higher will benefit neither the student, nor society, in the long run.
ReplyDeleteI agree University is not always necessary or best, a decent percentage of young people need to learn other types of jobs, trades like plumbing, mechanics, electricians and construction, whether building homes, or roads/bridges etc, these people are as essential to living as doctors and lawyers. And someone has to work in manufacturing factories to supply the goods that are used by trades.
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered what A levels are. Thanks for the explanation. Aren't there also O levels? If there are, then what does that mean? Plenty of students in the US quit college during their first year. I often think we should have a gap year the way the UK does so kids spend a year maturing by traveling and/or working at jobs before they go to college, but it sounds as if the gap year isn't keeping some of your students from quitting.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
All stemming from 'Every child's a winner' attitude when they are young. Once only one child won the game of 'Pass the parcel'.
ReplyDeleteHere, so many well educated young people work in retail and hospitality.
I so agree with you; it's not doing young people any favour if even the most feeble effort (or none at all) is praised out of proportion. Learning that one sometimes does not achieve (immediately, or at all) what one has tried to do is a realistic and healthy lesson in life.
ReplyDeleteUniversity has its place, but so do all the other jobs that need doing in this world. I only have the German equivalent of O-levels and then an apprenticeship, but I have not been out of work a single day in my adult life and have always been able to care for myself and pay my own bills.
Universities are not the end of the learning process.. that is true. But just as important for some families, they are not even the beginning of it
ReplyDeleteI heard older relatives say that school leavers who go into apprenticeships will shame their accounting or lawyer parents. Shame on the parents, more likely.
Every year the TV news shows successful A level students excitedly celebrating and sharing their results. Maybe one year the BBC and Channel 4 will focus on the kids who failed - scraping low grades or no grades at all with their heads hanging low. Often they are youngsters who should never have been on A level courses in the first place.
ReplyDeleteGetting into university here means a lot of money spent by parents for outside lessons. It's very difficult and even worse when you're a cepted and have to find accommodation. The few student dorms are run down, dirty and unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of trade schools here, much easier to get into and with diplomas that count. My two grandsons are motor mechanics andwith the necessary electronic stuff as well. Both happy thank goidness
Congrats to all the students who did well 🎉. But I agree, university isn’t the only path--apprenticeships and trades deserve more respect too.
ReplyDeleteI really wish trade jobs would get as much push as universities. Those jobs are always needed and people make really good money. I think it's a shame that not as much emphasis is placed on those careers.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, but unfortunately a lot of parents want their children in a university question of standing which is ridiculous ! Toby who was so excellent in primary school, doesn't like the secondary school and doesn't want to go to university. I see my son who was not in an university but he made a wonderful career, fortunately they don't insist and let Toby decide ! I still couldn't sign into my Dashboard that's why I can't post. Today we had 37°C never happened in Belgium ! And now at 9 pm it's still 32 !!
ReplyDeleteWhen plumbing or electrical problems occur, you can't outsource that to a cheaper, overseas country. ~ skye
ReplyDeleteTotally agree that other forms of learning and skills need to be valuex more highly. Have you heard of the late Ken Robinson and his efforts to make that argument?
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone, for your comments.
ReplyDeleteWhile I am very happy for all those who have received their results in exams and are now eagerly looking forward to their next step, I agree entirely with everything you have said here, Janice.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this so much. I feel that many of the youngsters going to university now are being sold a pig in a poke. They are told that they'll need a degree to get anywhere, but they don't have the academic results to take a degree that will pay well and so end up with a 'softer' degree. Those degrees rarely lead to a well paying job, but they're still left with so much debt. If they could have gone another route, like an apprenticeship or just started in at the ground floor somewhere, they'd have years of earnings, no student debt and a foothold in their career.
ReplyDeleteSon is at a Russell Group university, and competition is tough to get there, but his classmates are still dropping out and failing, despite the efforts that they must have taken to get their place. The workload is heavy (maths and computer science with an insane amount of coursework and contact hours) and suddenly they don't know how to go on now that they don't have parents, teachers and tutors coaxing them through their days.
Not everyone is academic (and academic is not the same as intelligent), and it's cruel to force kids to push beyond their limits, while at the same time accruing a ton of student debt and, for some degrees, no prospect of a job that pays well enough to clear the balance.
In our country, the pendulum seems to be swinging away from universities to trade schools. My son went to a two year program and has worked his way up the ladder. He is considered an engineer now, and has been nationally recognized for one of his projects. It is not about the degree, I think, so much as what a person can do with that knowledge.
ReplyDelete