Educational changes

The government has put forward a new policy to increase the number of A levels a student must take from 3 to 4 or more subjects. These subjects would be studied in less depth than A levels do now but would in the end, represent more marks than A levels do now. This policy has now been agreed and is said to begin as of the year 2001.

However, this policy has many conflicting issues surrounding it and many people have many different views on it. Some people in the process of studying A levels feel that it is unfair because from next year onwards, people taking A levels will have higher qualifications and therefore will have a better chance of getting a higher, university education than they had. The government feel that there is increasingly high competition for places in Universities and in job applications already and feel that by increasing the amount of A levels taken, their qualifications will be better, as will their chances in competing for jobs or Universities.

To get a better idea on people’s views about this policy, I decided to ask three people of very different ages to comment on their opinions. The first person I asked, a fifty year old man said that the policy was a good idea because teenagers completing their A levels would have a broader knowledge and greater variety of expertise which would be of great value in their careers e.g., a foreign language or better developed numeric skills. I also asked an eighteen year old girl, just about to take her A level exams after two years of studying. She also felt that it was a good idea as there would be more choices of jobs and more chances of getting into a University to do a course they really wanted. Also, if their University results were poor, they might be allowed to take up a job they applied to based on their A level results.

Katy Dick

Bishop Heber High School