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 |  Subject: UK: One million pupils 'failed by Labour exam policy'  Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:35 pm | |
| Study shows GCSE 'lost generation'
Parents urge better skills training
An 'entire generation' of school children has been let down by the Labour government, a new study has claimed. The report, by the Bow Group, reveals that almost a million teenagers failed to achieve even the lowest grade, a G, in five GCSEs since the party came to power.
While ministers have boasted about the rise in the number of pupils achieving five C grades at GCSE, they have failed to highlight the growing numbers at the bottom of the pile. Over the past decade the number of teenagers walking away from school without five basic G grades, including in English and maths, has risen - despite billions of pounds of investment in education. Almost 90,000 pupils fell into the category last year, the highest figure since 1998.
The report - which covers English schools between 1997 to 2007 - also found there were 3.9 million pupils, close to 60 per cent of the total, who had not gained five C grades at GCSE, including in the core subjects of English and maths. Although a G is the lowest pass possible at GCSE, achieving five C grades is considered a 'minimum benchmark' by employers. The report, The Failed Generation; the real cost of education under Labour, which will be published tomorrow by the right-of-centre think-tank, has calculated that more than £70bn of taxpayers' money had been spent educating almost four million young people who fell short of the basic grades.
'Ten years after "education, education, education" became Labour's mantra, millions of pupils have failed to gain the qualifications they need under the government's watch,' said Chris Skidmore, chairman of the Bow Group and author of the report.
'Last year, nearly one in six pupils did not even get five GCSEs of any grade - the highest figures since 10 years ago. These pupils were five when Labour came to power. There are simply no more excuses for this level of persistent and sustained record of failure. We have witnessed a decade of disappointment in which an entire generation of pupils have been let down.'
According to Skidmore, employers have warned that young people without five good GCSEs, grade C or above, risk not getting jobs. A survey by the Learning and Skills Council found that more than 20 per cent of employers would not recruit teenagers without the grades or a vocational equivalent while 15 per cent said they would ignore the CVs completely.
In preparing his report, Skidmore calculated how much more pupils could have earned had they achieved better grades. Using data that indicated people earn, on average, £2,261 more a year with five Cs at GCSE than those without, he found the 3.9 million pupils had already foregone billions of pounds. The figure would continue to rise as they grew older and their income continued to trail behind their peers, he added.
The report also highlighted the fact that spending on each pupil had risen dramatically since Labour came to power, from £2,910 in 1997 to £5,080 last year. 'While spending per pupil has increased by £2,170 - an increase of 75 per cent since 1997/98, the percentage of pupils obtaining five good GCSEs including English and maths has only increased by 9 per cent,' the report states. 'The cost to the taxpayer of funding pupils who then failed to gain five good GCSEs including in English and maths is extremely high.'
Last week, parent groups said it was time for ministers to question what was 'going wrong'. 'You could say that if they were not going to achieve those grades, why did we try to make them?' said Margaret Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations. 'Why did we not give them a vocational education that could have helped them life-long? You could say that the system is wasting taxpayers' money because we are giving these children the wrong type of education.'
Morrissey argued that there would always be some children who were not 'academically great' but who could be successful with the correct support. 'They may have gone through a traumatic time just to achieve that G,' she said. 'Shouldn't we be providing an alternative for youngsters, so they can come out of school with useful qualifications and a little bit of self-esteem?'
But a spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families hit back, pointing to the Labour party's successes in education.
'In 1997 over half of all secondary schools were failing to get 30 per cent or more of their pupils to what we now see as the benchmark for any teenager - five good GCSEs or equivalent with English and maths,' he said.
'This is now down to a fifth of schools. If that trend continues, there should be no schools under this level by 2012. We now have 70,000 more young people leaving school with five good GCSEs including English and maths than did so 10 years ago. Schools at the lowest level are receiving intensive support.'
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2275074,00.html
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