Saturday, September 01, 2018

HAVE BRIGG GRAMMAR PUPILS MADE THE GRADE AT LAST?


Have some former Brigg Grammar School pupils of the 1960s and early 1970s now been handed  a belated educational bonus by the authorities?
If you thought you had flunked O-Level exams taken all those years ago, things are now looking much brighter.
Grade 9, which was the worst grade in our day, and a dismal failure, is now the highest pass!
However, if you were clever enough to gain some Grade 1 and Grade 2 O-Levels in the 1960s and early 1970s, note that 1 & 2 are now fails.
Seriously, it means that those of us either side of 60 who are still earning a crust and applying for jobs have some explaining to do when the application form instructs that all exam grades must be listed, as is generally the case.
This might prove difficult with so many job applications now being done online using standard forms.
Why have they turned things on their head? Didn't the authorities spare a thought for those of us (admittedly knocking on a bit now) who took exams long ago?
We don't see this as age discrimination but it is irritating to some of us senior, and almost senior, citizens.
Here's a link to a government post explaining the new GCSE grades...

PICTURED: Brigg Grammar School pupils of the 1960s, with renowned maths master Harold Stinson, top right. We were given a Grade 9 in the Cambridge O-Level mathematics exam of 1972. Today that's the top grade, but in our day it was a definite failure. We scraped a pass the following year but can recall that some of the boys seen above were brainy types and not grade nine material. They wasted less time in the cricket nets when exams were pending than some others we might mention!

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