You have to admire the chutzpah of the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, the UK’s biggest exam board. After years of dumbing down in which the board made GCSEs and A-levels easier and easier it has suddenly discovered a social conscience. Later today, it will unveil a proposal at the Labour Party conference to award "university points" to children alongside their A-level results, rewarding them for doing well relative to the average performance of children in their schools. The hope is that good universities will take these points into account when making offers, thereby raising the bar for children from independent schools. “The idea is to set a level-playing field for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds by standardising ranks according to points and schools," says a spokesman for the AQA. (To read more, click here.)
