More and more British state schools are sceptical of the quality of the official exam system and turn away from these, instead offering the International Baccalaureate (IB), a Swiss-run qualification, which is considered as more challenging than the British exams. More than 100 British schools will be offering the Swiss baccalaureate. This year's results of the A'level exams will show a pass rate of more than 96%, and universities complain that they can no longer judge ability from exam results.
Pupils who opt for the IB are required to study the humanities and sciences. They typically study six subjects, including English and maths, a language, a science, a social science, such as history or geography, and a creative subject such as drama or art. Pupils also have to write a 4,000-word essay, study the theory of knowledge and undertake community work.
The quality of the A'level exams dramatically dropped when in 2000 the traditional two-year standard A-level was scrapped, and replaced by A-levels split into two halves — AS-level and A2.
What can we (the Germans) learn from the British experience? In order to produce more students (our politicians' long-standing objective) you only have to drop the quality of exams (..and why not creating more comprehensive schools..?).... an excellent recipe of how to ruin an already bad school system..). Say 'hello' to PISA....-:) Sorry for the sarcastic remark, but after 40 years of teaching I know what I'm talking about...