The reputation of A levels has been dealt a blow after the head of an exam board expressed doubts about their value. Simon Lebus, group chief executive of the Cambridge Assessment board, part of Cambridge University, said that examiners, regulators and politicians had all been wrong in failing to address declining public confidence in “A-level currency”.
Mr Lebus said that it was “hard not to be troubled” by research showing a decline in standards in A-level maths and science. “There is no doubt that confidence in the value of the A-level currency has suffered over recent years,” he said.
In a lecture to the exams regulator, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), he said: “We all, the QCA, the awarding bodies, politicians and the Department for Children, Schools and Families, in its various guises, have been remiss in not being readier to debate the impact of changes in A level, perhaps not least because operating within a culture where there has been an expectation of consistently improving levels of attainment, we may not have felt a need to do so.”
The A-level pass rate has risen for 25 successive years, reaching 96.9 per cent this year, with nearly one in ten candidates achieving three A grades.
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