by Pamela Readhead
The 'silly season' media hysteria about A-level results is a 'rather flippant expression of serious issues,' according to Dr Paul Warmington at the University of Birmingham. 'A lot of the coverage is really about anxiety over the implications of widening access to post-compulsory education. The stories are predictable, simplistic, ritualistic and based upon long established media templates,' he says.
This August, the A-level results melodrama was enlivened by threats by private school head teachers to introduce their own exam to replace the 'terminally ill' A-level, accusations by the think-tank 'Reform' that a student who achieved an E grade in maths in 1988 would get a B today and a spirited defence of the 'gold standard' exam by Schools Minister Lord Adonis.
Dr Paul Warmington and Professor Roger Murphy of Nottingham University made a detailed analysis of over 200 press, tv and radio stories about A-level results as part of an ESRC-funded research project in August 2003. They also conducted interviews with journalists, awarding body staff, representatives of professional bodies and other individuals whose views are often reported during the August results period.
'The headlines don't seem to have changed since then,' says Warmington. 'This year there are exactly the same themes of 'falling standards' and 'dumbing down' as well as celebratory stories about very successful students. As usual the language is peppered with terms such as the 'gold standard' and 'hard' and 'soft' A-level subjects. There are also the same key images such as ecstatic students (usually female and hugging) and 'rent-a-quotes' from a predictable list of media performers reflecting a series of diametrically opposed views.
"Only a third of students in the UK sit A-levels and only 9-10 per cent of those gain three A-grade passes"
According to Warmington, the latest headlines such as 'Headmaster begs private schools to stand up and be counted,' Daily Telegraph; '97% should be a triumph, not a tragedy' the Sun; 'Unfailable A-levels - rebellion grows over 'too easy' exam,' Daily Mail; are a proxy for real concerns about Britain's education policy. 'Only a third of students in the UK sit A-levels and only 9-10 per cent of those gain three A-grade passes. To describe this media panic as a national debate is absurd,' he says.
Paul Warmington says the real subject of concern 'is whether the function of education is to preserve the elite - who have always been well served in the UK - or maximise the potential of the rest of the school population - who have not been well catered for.' The report says the polarised and confrontational media coverage reflects the conflict between the New Labour policies of widening access - with targets of 50% of young people going to university - and the view of the right wing press 'that favours only a minority of the population gaining educational successes and subsequent access to high status universities, professions, and jobs.'
The research also looked at the media portrayal of the technicalities surrounding the way exams are graded and monitored. 'The exam boards were caught on the hop and they were bewildered about dealing with the media,' says Warmington, 'but it suits nobody to admit the truth that grading is not a science, but inevitably a compromise.'