 |
 |
Duncan It is a thorny issue I agree. Iım not sure who speaks for us even if there was a consensus. But presumably, the unions, the university education departments, the exam boards, associations like the EBEA all have a say. When I started my PGCE at London in the early 90s Sir Peter Newsom gave a lecture he said that 100 years ago teachers were paid the equivalent of £70,000 the erosion of status and money he largely put down to deciding to become unionised rather than become a Royal college similar to doctors, lawyers and the like. Certainly our voice is disparate in economics, let alone teaching, so it is difficult in the extreme to affect anything. But fighting our corner is a must I think. First we have to recognise that we produce a product the educated student whom we sell on to an employer or a university but we also sell a service to the student/parent/society. With 50% going to university now the universities are of increasing importance. The universities need to be able to discriminate between students we can argue that they are wrong and we might continue to do so if we wish but ultimately they are the customer for 50% of our product as teachers and even more as A level teachers and we are very limited in being able to tell the customer what he wants. We must also be true to ourselves we must surely educate our students in Economics and business to levels, topics, capabilities and values to which we collectively and individually believe to be right. I do not believe these are incompatible. One way for example might be just to abandon grades in A levels and just issue raw scores. The grade boundaries may have come down but the standard of teaching, student effort, teaching materials have not. Whatever the cure might be, it wont be decided here but the EBEA might put forward its collective view after doing some work on it perhaps we could commission some work. We should also fight tooth and nail any SAT drift in government thinking. But as a back up consider that if we do have SATs we also have subject specific SATs too, not just the English and Maths. A radical suggestion The EBEA should set syllabuses for economics and business, set exams, help coordinate university research, give grants for research. Much as the work at the moment is outstanding regarding the exam boards and publishers (as a previous thread discussed) - the relationship is a little cosy. The EBEA is as I understand independent and non-commercial and I would have thought the perfect institution for determining content, standards and values. Bridges to universities, employers and local communities must be maintained and strengthened and respect for the A level (or whatever we call it) is regained. If we donıt do it ourselves, others will do it for us.