With so many different outlooks, it's no surprise that there is disagreement. None of these groups, however, manages to effectively convey to the other groups why they think the way they do. There are many differences between the skills and knowledge required of mathematics pupils now and those required in the past. Discrete maths has become much more important at school, as have investigative skills. Academics unsurprisingly see this as a retrograde move, but that is because of their own particular perspective.
Employers have similar problems.
That makes it easier to compare the relative academic ability of two people who took exams in different years, but allows no way for a true increase in knowledge to show up in the results. A Levels - subject by subject. About the author Dr. Robert Hunt is the Editor of PASS Maths.