The education system in the UK is failing, despite what the politicians may tell us. Recently a Labour party MP illustrated what a wonderful job they had done in power. It was the usual infuriating Labour spin and refusal to accept any responsibility. She set out an array of meaningless statistics, stating how much grades and standards had improved.

Frankly grade statistics mean absolutely nothing. Grade inflation benefits everyone. It benefits the, politicians the teachers, the parents and the students. Is it any wonder grades keep increasing? Only one statistic really matters, youth unemployment. Youth unemployment will soon hit a million. It is a damning indictment of Labours 10 years in power. For all the great grades people may have it means nothing when it comes to getting a job and ultimately that’s all that matters.

What’s the problem? The problem is teaching culture. It is an obsession with exams and teaching the test. Teachers have become very good at teaching tests and students have become very good at doing them. Everything in the exams can be learnt. There is no opportunity for the students to show their own ideas. All the answers have to fit into a mark scheme (which we studied extensively) even the so called evaluation questions (where a student is supposed to be expressing their own ideas). All this stems from uncreative rigid syllabuses all again designed to fit into a nice and easy marking scheme. This is not how learning should be.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not blaming the teachers it’s certainly not their fault. Most teachers would love to spend more of their time doing real teaching but what choice do they have when their jobs are on the line. The problem is excessive central control and a system which treats everybody as a statistic rather than an individual and is obsessed with targets.

How many practice papers do you think I undertook for each A level module. 5? 10? The true number was closer to 25 per module. By the time I got into the exam I’d already seen and answered all the questions before. Was it any wonder I got great grades? But was it really a test of my intelligence and skill? What did I really learn? I’ve now been doing exams every term since the age of 8. If the education has left me with one thing it’s the ability to pass an exam.

When I came out of the education system I naively thought that with my great grades I would walk into a job. As it was I was completely unprepared.

In my next article I will show what we need to do to fix the system and prevent the country becoming engulfed in crisis in the future, because believe me, if we don’t fix this, it will. In the meantime please add your own ideas and thoughts below.