What does GCSE success look like?
THERE is a tendency at this time of year to focus on individual success.
Top students are nudged forward to take well-deserved accolades as they reflect on all the hard work.
But from an island perspective GCSE day is not about the individual and the best performers. It is about the whole.
How has the school year done and what do the combined results of all the schools tell us about our education system?
People want to know that their children, friends, grandchildren and future employees are in good hands.
That is especially true at present. The decision to abandon the 11-plus and selective education and replace them with a two-school all-ability system has generated understandable uncertainty.
With hundreds of millions set to be staked on the new system in a matter of weeks, nervous islanders need to understand what success looks like.
What benefits will the new system bring? And how will they be measured?
Of course, that does not just mean exam success. It also means creating well-rounded, confident, employable individuals.
But in terms that can be empirically gauged, exams will be a key part of understanding how the new secondary school system is driving improved results across the board.
Education, Sport & Culture says that it wants to bring the ‘highest levels of transparency’ to this process. Yet anyone reading through yesterday’s list of GCSE results will struggle to know how that will be measured. There are just too many variables.
Education itself warns against making comparisons with the UK. A new secondary school accountability system introduced three years ago is bedding in and Guernsey is still using the outdated 5 A*-C system.
Direct comparisons are therefore impossible.
More worryingly, it is likely to continue that way for some time because island students are only just starting new GCSE courses and the Bailiwick will switch fully to the 1-9 grade system.
As a consequence, it will be 2023, five years after the States vote, before any meaningful comparison with an outside jurisdiction can be made.
By 2023, we will have a new, all-ability, system, but little idea how much better or worse it is than either the UK or the old system.