Robert Verkaik`s suggestion that private schools have "managed to hold on to the reins for so long" because everyone wants the "best for their children" is only partially true (Our educational apartheid laid bare, Books, 22.07.18). His book`s reviewer, Alex Renton, being a self-confessed "posh boy", might understand this, but it is unlikely the majority will, especially when "buying access to university" becomes unacceptable because the access for already highly advantaged pupils is achieved through a different, and probably easier route.
Although the new "more rigorous" GCSEs are compulsory for state schools, they are avoided in the independent sector in favour of Cambridge Assessment`s IGCSE. A-level examinations are also being abandoned in favour of Pre-U examinations, also run by Cambridge Assessment, but set and marked by teachers in the independent sector. Cambridge Assessment is not affiliated to the Joint Council for Qualifications which regulates all other examination boards.
A Freedom of Information request to the Department of Education for a breakdown of last year`s Pre-U results proved enlightening. History was the most popular Pre-U examination with independent schools, with 745 pupils entered. Of those, 451 were awarded distinctions, the equivalent of A*/A grades; that`s 60.5% of the entry, compared to 23.4% gaining the same grades at A-level. For English Literature, a massive 74.9% of the entry received the equivalent of A*/A grades at Pre-U, compared to the A-level percentage of 24.8%.
The Physics figures were 65.8% compared to 29.6%, Maths 67.7% as opposed to 41.8% at A-level. In the less popular subjects the percentages of top grades are even more remarkable; Spanish Pre-U 82.6% compared with A-level`s 34%, and Music 78.6% compared with 19% at A-level.
Even "posh boys" might have to admit university places are being gained in a rather dubious manner!
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