Chris Woodhead, the Chief Inspector of Schools in England, says that the political pressure to encourage more young people to stay in school should not be an excuse for letting standards fall. Instead of lowering standards to allow more students to take A-levels, Mr Woodhead called for the exam to be targeted at a small number of the most able pupils. Chris Woodhead betrays his fundamentally elitist approach to education. Writing in the Guardian, Mr Woodhead attacked a system in which every year exam results were expected to rise and which could not accept failure. An education system must involve failure.
Life involves failure.
They have consistently argued that standards have been carefully monitored and that there has been no reduction in the quality of candidates' exam papers and coursework.