Exams & the Education System

So what are we going to do about Exams and the Education system? Yes you! You and me, what are we going to do to change the Education system in this country with its emphasis on Exams and Exam success? On a day that we find that teacher recruitment is down and that exams are leading to teen suicide we must come to the conclusion that there is something rotten in the state of education or rather of Ofsted and the ludicrous examination system. 

As a bad student I've cribbed a bit from Wikipedia:

History

Early beginnings

Exam boards have been around as long as there have been qualifications offered by schools. As universities had experience of offering qualifications, such as degrees, it was natural that they created the first exam boards. Indeed, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge each had their own exam board and a joint board they ran together. The qualifications offered were generally of the boards' own creation. Schools and colleges (with some exceptions, detailed below) were free to pick which board they wanted to use, though most went for a local board.

The early boards established included:

• 1857: University of Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations (founded by the University of Oxford)
• 1858: University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES, founded by the University of Cambridge)
• 1858: University of Durham Matriculation and School Examination Board (founded by the University of Durham)
• 1873: Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board (founded by the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge)
• 1896: Central Welsh Board (founded by the Welsh local authorities)
• 1900: University of Birmingham
• 1902: University of London Extension Board (founded by the University of London)
• 1903: Joint Matriculation Board (JMB, founded by the Victoria University of Manchester, the University of Liverpool and the University of Leeds)
• 1911: University of Bristol School Examinations Council (founded by the University of Bristol)

Even just to crib the above I have had to fuss ass about getting rid of links and annotations. Do you see the date of the first examination board 1857! 1857!!! The middle of the Victorian era. "Exam Boards have been around as long as there have been qualifications offered by schools." Well these buggers saw their chance didn't they? We'll make a killing on the backs of poor unfortunate students and not to put it too finely these Victorian exams and examination boards are now killing students.

We often hear that Employers complain that school leavers and even University leavers lack skills for the workplace. Well if they are sitting exams set in place in 1857 are you surprised? What are these exams testing these days? The same things as they were testing in my day? Memory. If you have a memory like a sponge, you pass, if you don't, you fail.It has just occurred to me that this is where many people get their black and white, right or wrong thinking from. From taking exams from such a young age. You either passed or you failed! There was no grey middling area. You were either a success or a failure! How dare these schools and these f*ckin* examination boards decide whether or not you are a failure at 15 and at 18? How f*ck*ng dare they play God like this? You can tell that the Shark Fisherman feels strongly about this subject! You see I do, because I was that boy that failed his exams.