- Title: Dispatches: Making The Grades
- Date: 11th October 1995
- Summary: Investigates falling standards in GCSE and `A' level examinations,which belie the official results showing yearly improvements in pass rates and grades. Establishes a direct link between low standards,the market driven examination system and the inability of SCAA (The School Curriculum Assessment Authority) hitherto to monitor effectively and raise those standards. Features the assistant chief executive of SCAA,a senior representative of the Associated Examining Board,two senior examiners,the former Secretary-General of the no longer independent Oxford and Cambridge Examination Board,and an independent examination expert. Suggests that the market-driven boards compete for the custom of schools across the UK by lowering curriculum and marking standards to promote higher league table results.
- Description:Conservative education reforms have led to a market place in exams. Now schools move between boards in order to obtain the easiest exams so that high results enhance their reputation. Those exam boards which feel they are losing business change their papers in order to recover market share. DISPATCHES also investigates the Schools Curriculum and Assessment Authority.
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Documentary and Factual
- Producer:Unspecified
- Programme Episode:Episode 1
- Transmission Date:11/10/1995
- Rights:On Request
- Decade: 1990s