I APPLAUD Michael Gove’s proposal for the reintroduction of O Levels (Echo, June 22).
Examining pupils, or should I to be politically correct and call them students, on their ability to prepare a well-reasoned, grammatically correct and structured answer to a question on whatever subject will no doubt raise standards from their present lamentably low level.
There is an obstacle to this brave suggestion.
Who will teach the pupils to this standard?
Most of today’s young teachers have been raised in the spell check society. They are incapable of writing in anything other than text speak.
I recently watched a BBC quiz show where a schoolteacher, possibly in his late 20s, could not answer a simple English Literature question.
His defence was he had “sailed” through GCSE literature without reading any of the set books and achieved a grade A.
The tick box syndrome of GCSE examinations has produced a semi-literate society incapable of logical and wellreasoned debate.
Should Mr Gove’s plan go ahead, and I sincerely hope it does, the re-education of teachers must take place.
Colin Mortimer, Pity Me.
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