Okay, so it's that time of year and the arguments are going on about whether A levels have got easier or harder since I/we/whoever did them.

However, in the discussion about whether to change the system, it doesn't matter whether they are easier or harder, they are simply not, it would appear, "fit for purpose" to use a favourite government phrase. Not "fit for purpose" in the sense that it is getting extremely difficult to differentiate between those with high grades and those with really high grades.

It shouldn't matter whether those high grades are being achieved because people are working harder, being better educated, meriting higher scores, or because the assessment is less rigourous allowing more people to pass them more easily. The fact that there is a tighter bunching of grades (and also partly because there are a whole load more higher education establishments now vying for the same pool of students), means that there needs to be a new way of defining the achievements, the rounded academic ability and potential that different institutions, employers and others will need and how to assess them.

Better I say to make a break in such a case; don't pretend that whatever develops is the same qualification as I did twenty odd years ago. It's no value judgement to say it needs replacing though.

Even back then, I was royally screwed by demands that I choose just three complimentary subjects. I started off wanting to study Physics (see my other comments on sciences today) but wanted to combine it with languages, so I chose English, German, Physics and Maths (pure maths was outside the "options" so you could take it as a fourth in those days when even the best generally only did three A levels). There was an outcry and I was soon - well it took half a school year or one quarter of my A level education - talked round to English, Latin and History because they were more consistent - even though I hadn't even done History amongst my twelve O levels (but had A grades in Maths, Physics, Chemistry and a B in Further Maths AO Level) because I didn't particularly enjoy it though I am rediscovering its enticements now thanks to folk like David Starkey, Niall Ferguson and Adam Hart-Davies. A Baccalaureate type mix and match qualification would no doubt have suited this polymath much better.

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