Apparently, 40% of 14-year-old boys perform below the level expected for their age group in national tests, and this is a Terrible Thing.
In other equally shocking news, which also comes as a devastating indictment of the government’s failed education policies [etc etc ad nauseam], nearly 50% of people are of below-average intelligence.
"The general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Steve Sinnott, said one reform Mr Knight should introduce was the removal of the current testing and performance table regime."
This has to be the answer. Sit through 7 years of school doing bugger all, and pick up your A-star distinction certificates on the last day.
I don't think you've got this one right. The report says 'Four in 10 boys aged 14 in England did not attain the level they were expected to…'
Not that they were below average.
Aye, but if you say "this is how clever 14-year-olds ought to be" and then 60% of them achieve it, then that doesn't strike me as too dire a failure.
(the level they missed is the level that 14-year olds in general are expected to achieve, not the level that they were expected to achieve, in case the poor choice of language in the press report has confused anyone…)