No, a G is not a pass

The fact that no college in the land asks for five G grades for entrance, and will instead ask for five C grades, or that no employer is looking to hire pupils with a mixture of D, E, and F grades, that he only wants C grades, should be ignored. The author of this article, Katharine Birbalsingh, was vilified for telling the Conservative party conference last year that her and other schools were failing their students. At the moment hundreds of thousands of students are sitting their GCSE exams (aged 16) and later this year schools will be ranked according to the results. A*-C are the pass grades for an English baccalaureate that the current Government is using to measure performance in English schools. Despite this most people are reluctant to accept that a D, an E or worse, an F or G means the student has not learned enough to get a pass grade (a U means the examiner simply cannot mark the paper, if for instance the student has not put a pen to the paper). How can you say someone has done really well if you cannot say that he or she has done really badly? Most people do not mind telling athletes or footballers they are rubbish when they perform badly but academic performance seems to be taboo to treat in the same way. It is too late to be told the truth of the value of five G's when you try to get a job and are being turned away.