Bank of Education

Examination results bring huge pressure for the students, but in today’s accountable society, it brings pressure for teachers, head teachers, LEAs, Examination Boards and Governments! By being transparent on examination results the Government brings a stick to beat itself up with, to beat Examination Boards up with and everyone all the way down the food chain to the lowly teacher, with the teacher being the whipping boy for poor results (what is the opposite of a whipping boy?). Praise being given to those teachers achieving great things for their pupils –Definition of Great Things: moving a child from a Grade D to a Grade C. Where is the praise for moving a child from a Grade E to a Grade D?

It is no wonder that teachers constantly look for ways to beat the system, in most cases, honestly. And there are many ways to play the system. A Grade C is the Holy Grail for every school. These Grade C boundary pupils become the focus of every department resulting in an uneven distribution of the mathematics department’s resources. Typical tactics being, but not limited to: changing Examination Board, putting the best teachers to teach the sets which target these grade boundaries, extra lessons, early entries, withdrawal for targeted pupil one-to-one work etc.

For years I have advocated that if maths standards are to be upheld through the GCSE system then the Examination Board is key to this. The Examination Board cannot be in a competitive environment. The Examination Boards have little option but to erode grade boundaries as savvy Heads of Department tactically switch Boards dependent on the previous year’s Grade boundaries and pass rates. This erosion led to the introduction of the A* as too many achieved As to distinguish between them. Pressure on Examination Boards has led to a second successive year of a fall in the proportion of pupils achieving an A*-C grade. For maths this year the fall was by 0.8%.

When SATs where introduced, no one blinked twice at one Examination Board administering the process and controlling the grade boundaries. This is what has to be done for each subject at CGSE, with the Examination Board’s remit in upholding the standards, and if the standards drops, so does the pass rate. At least some of this is being addressed.

But what of the bigger picture? In 1998 the Bank of England was given operational independence over monetary policy and given sole responsibility for setting interest rates to meet Government inflation targets. Government setting interest rates was a headache and an election loser, so outsourcing this way was a win-win. It wasn't the Government’s fault if the interest rate was high/low (different people want different things!) and experts – yes people who knew what they were doing - were in charge! As Governments come and go there is an uninterfered constant.

So what has that to do with anything? A body of experts running independent of the Government helping to achieve National goals. Could that be transferable? A body of people that run education with no affiliation to Government, that sets the National goals, hence the curriculum and maintains the integrity of standards through the examination system. Real maths teacher working with academics towards a common goal without political interference. What about the current committees, we do have them..after all if Carol Vordermann can add and multiply she surely knows how to advise the Government on how to teach our children, just as George Clooney should be helping out the Health Department – he did appear in many episodes of ER.

So the make-up of this autonomous, apolitical Bank of Education. Why not just academics in this body? By the definition they are very clever people..and that is the problem, they need grounding. How does a successful curriculum work? I have addressed that before but in a nutshell it has to be deliverable. There are many elements to this, but academics have to be realistic about what can be achieved, (and realistic about what the country needs in a workforce) hence achieving a balance with long serving teachers. It would deliver a constant through the changing political world.

Politicians flit between different departments, becoming instant experts in a wide range of areas. If only we mere mortals could become experts in our fields so easily. The current Education incumbent seems determined to mold education in his own image. Possibly the Bank of Education needs to have stern words with him.

Ian Fisher, Managing Director of 10ticks