Gary Neville has explained why he is so opposed to A-level examinations, just as hundreds of thousands of students around the country await their results.
Today, on a day also known as ‘Jeremy Clarkson day,’ owing to his yearly tweet about his results, many students will find out whether or not they have been accepted into the institution of their choice after years of hard work.
However, Gary, a commentator and former professional player, believes that their futures should not be determined by two-hour examinations.
The 48-year-old, who co-founded the higher education organisation University Academy 92 in 2017, stated on BBC Breakfast that he strongly disagrees with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s claim that he wants to eliminate “low-quality” courses.
‘What does that mean? Does that mean sport science? Does that mean courses where people can go and sort of, if you like, get a career in something that they would… you talk about people from disadvantaged communities – the likelihood is that those students are going to be doing what he describes as being those “low quality” courses,’ Gary stated.
‘And he’s saying that he wants to make it more difficult for students to go to university doing those courses, so to prevent people from going into higher education.’
The former England star stressed that he has a ‘different belief around exams’, as he doesn’t think that students should ‘work for 16 years at school and at college and then it all depend upon a two-hour assessment’.
‘I think it’s prehistoric. I honestly believe that it needs ripping up,’ he declared.
‘I think you should be judged over your body of work. There is easier ways to gain consistency and assessment through marking people’s work that they do over their coursework – and that does happen obviously at schools and universities.
‘Part of your grade does come from your coursework, but I believe we need to move it all towards that.’
Gary added that he believes that in 10 years’ time, employers won’t take people’s A-level and GCSE results into account when considering whether to hire them as they’re instead ‘going to look at your experience that you’ve had in the workplace’.
‘But to get into the workplace in the first place, you may be judged upon what you’ve actually achieved in these results, and I think what you should have is a career passport, a body of work that you should be able to be proud of, that you should be able to refer to your employers and they should be able to look at,’ he added.
‘They’re not going to look at an exam, which is so robotic and methodical, and it’s out of date I believe in 2023.’
Several individuals watching BBC Breakfast agreed with Gary, with one calling the notion of a “education passport” “interesting.”
‘The obsession with – and enormous consequences of – exam results is the aspect of British education that will always make the absolute least sense to me,’ another remarked.
Someone else commented: ‘He’s right. Chances of a serious change, sadly, are nil.’
BBC Breakfast airs from 6am on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Source My Celebrity Life.