David Craig, on August 4th, 2013Looking through some old GCSE physics papers, I came across this question (click to see more clearly)
It rather looks as if the question was set by a life-long Guardian reader.
The key problem with this is obviously the assumption that Global Warming is caused by human activity – in particular power generation. Yet the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere goes up every year, while global temperatures have not risen for about 15 years. (Now that might be a more interesting question for 15-16 year olds to discuss).
But there is another problem with this question – it’s laughably easy. When many of us took our physics O Level, we’d have been doing complicated calculations about electricity and the mass and velocity of moving bodies and so on. Not answering a pathetically simple, politically-biased multiple choice.
Oh, and in case you think I’m being unfair on our GCSEs, here’s a question from a maths paper:
Helpfully, the examiners give children a clue by showing that 1/2 is the same as 50%. Now, I realise that on Simon Cowell’s faked ‘talent’ shows, the judges frequently talk about “a thousand million per cent”. But honestly, this question for 15-16 year olds is probably easier than questions that would have been in the old 11 Plus tests. It would be a joke if it wasn’t so serious.
Yet in spite of such asinine exam questions, thanks mainly to our teaching unions with their “no child must learn anything, no child must excel” attitude, around 60% of 16-year-olds do not achieve a Grade C in English, Maths and Science.
Oh, and in case you thought the questions in the English GCSE were tough, here’s an example:
Not exactly as difficult as describing the psychology of a character in a Shakespeare play, is it?
There were. of course, many other, tougher questions in all these exam papers. But the fact that the three questions above were even included is truly chilling when you look at the efforts countries like Singapore, China, Malaysia, Thailand (where every child gets a tablet computer) and many others are putting into creating a more educated workforce.
Category: 
It appears that GCSEs have plummeted to joke status.
Who was buried in Grant’s Tomb? ( Irish “o” level question)
The maths question was way below 11+ difficulty.
Technologically competent science has discovered:
Any credible change to the level of non-condensing greenhouse gases doesn’t have, has never had and will never have significant effect on average global temperature.
GW ended before 2001. http://endofgw.blogspot.com/
AGW never was. http://climatechange90.blogspot.com/2013/05/natural-climate-change-has-been.html
Go to Hong Kong, Singapore, and you will see students as they should be educated. Most go to school six days a week. Homework is every night, not just now and then, and most learn, in Hong Kong anyway, Mandarin, English, and other Chinese dialects. English teachers are wanted but must be degree qualified with a lot of experience, the HK University is world class. Some of the wealthy parents used to send their children to the UK, as the thinking was that a degree with a oxbridge name to it gives a head start to their career, but it seems less think so now. Says it all doesn’t it. People vote with their feet.