It’s that time again. School students have spent the last two weeks either celebrating or being commiserated over their A level and GCSE results.
The results are better than ever, but of course we cannot have good news. So academics have been dragged out who will say the exams are getting easier, students/parents/universities/ employers/taxpayers are being short-changed.
The reality is that young people are working far harder than happened in my day and probably most people’s days.
I did not take A levels and didn’t go to university until I was in my 30s.
This proves at least three things: I was too idle as a kid; I did get two degrees so cannot have been totally stupid and it’s never too late, despite the teachers’ mantra that this is your only chance.
These days they do work hard from the beginning, with loads of extra homework - my seven-yearold has been doing homework for two years - and some students even attend schools at weekends to help them pass exams.
So I have every sympathy for them and little for the perpetual half-glass-empty moaners.
Congratulations to them all.
What does concern me is what is going to happen to these students once they have passed their exams.
We have run a story in MKNews, one of our sister papers, on how a student got six straight As and could not get a university place.
That is obviously out of the ordinary but is a graphic illustration of how university places are no longer guaranteed, and the reasons for rejection not clear and straightforward.
I would like to hear from this Government whether it considers a university education something that is a desirable aspiration for all students and, if not, for whom it is desirable. I have no objection to them ‘raising the bar’, so long as the rules of eligibility are both fair and clear.
This situation will become more pressing as the compulsory age limit for schoolchildren rises to 18 in a few years time.
So almost everyone will be taking A levels, as though on a step to higher education, then a large proportion of them will be turned down, some without even knowing why.
It might be a good idea to study a language, because, as usual, they have far more intelligible and straight-forward entrance criteria on the continent of Europe. And they consider higher education to be a good thing for all, not just a privilege for the few.
Degrees are not for everyone and work or vocational courses are a perfectly good alternative.
But there is little point in forcing students to stay at school until they are 18 if there is no tangible benefit.
As I said, the policies and the objectives should be clear and they should be fair. At the moment they look neither.
I was walking through Bedford town centre on Saturday and people were collecting for the flood victims of Pakistan.
Sadly, more people seemed to be passing by than giving. I may have picked a bad time and I understand we have a few economic problems of our own at the moment.
Also I am sometimes sceptical of charity and charities, as they often seem to be more about the person who is ‘doing a lot for charity’ than trying to relieve human suffering of some kind.
But Pakistan is suffering deeply at the moment because of these floods, which is a terrible disaster to add to their other problems.
And it is a country with which we have both a history and an affinity.
So it would be nice to see the Brits doing their bit, as is so often the case when the chips are down.
