Focus on C grades could be 'neglecting' some pupils

The government's drive to achieve a higher number of C grades in GCSE exams across the UK could be to the detriment of high and low achievers, an imminent study is expected to say.

Results from the schools select committee is expected to warn that teachers are being encouraged to focus more on pupils who could achieve a C grade than on those who could gain much higher results.

Criticism is being levelled at a growing tendency to focus on areas that will have the most dramatic effect on improving schools' rankings in the national league tables.

Elizabeth Thonemann, editor of the report, said: "It is bad for the children who feel their achievements are never going to be valued and bad for those at the borderline because the focus of their education is so much on this narrow figure."

In other news, Steve Fuller, a sociology professor at Warwick University in the Midlands, has called for children to be taught media literacy in schools to make them more aware of how modern advertising works, according to the Observer.

Written by Harriet McGowan.




Published On 23/11/2009