IfL congratulates FE learners and their teachers on A-level and Advanced Diploma results

Thursday 19 August 2010

The Institute for Learning (IfL), which is the independent professional body for teachers and trainers throughout the further education and skills sector, has welcomed this year's record A-level results, with 97.6 per cent of entries passing with grades A to E.

IfL's chief executive, Toni Fazaeli, said, "We would like to offer our congratulations to all those in further education who are celebrating their A-level results today, and to their teachers. I know that oceans of professional dedication goes into preparing, teaching and assessing students' work so that they are at their peak performance for their AS and A2 examinations. This is the first year that young people have been awarded the new Advanced Diploma, and our congratulations go to them and their teachers too. Provisional results show that 95.5 per cent gained grades A* to E.

"FE teachers are very successful at teaching A levels. Despite the double whammy of lower funding rates in further education (£4,631) than in schools (£5,650), and higher levels of student deprivation, the average point score for sixth-form colleges was 800.1 last year, compared to 761 for maintained school sixth forms, according to the Association of Colleges.

"Time and again, we hear comments about A levels becoming easier each year, but this does not tally with the evidence from teachers and trainers, or indeed from professionals who choose to go back and take an A level when they are in their thirties or older. Writing in the Guardian this week about her experience of taking an A level in English literature, a 37-year-old journalist and Cambridge alumnus commented that  the coursework was tough, and the language and understanding demanded of students reassuringly sophisticated. She is proud to have survived an exam where she was expected to 'situate texts within their historical context whilst looking at different interpretive stances', and has 'a new-found admiration both for A-level students and their teachers'.

"This year has been especially challenging for A-level candidates and their teachers. The introduction of the new A* grade, which requires exam marks of over 90 per cent, has raised levels of aspiration and expectation. A few universities are now asking for A* grades in one or more subjects, and 8.1 per cent of exam entries were actually awarded the A* star grade. At the same time, severe pressures on the public purse will mean that there are far fewer university places, and as many as 170,000 would-be university students could be disappointed. I would urge them to consider the rich range of vocational programmes offered in FE, tailored to lead to employment, as well as studying at university.

"In further education, we have the best qualified generation of teachers, who are committed to ongoing professional development as part of being a member of their professional body, IfL. Professional teachers have driven up A-level results through excellent teaching. They deserve high and loud praise."