GCSE or not GCSE?

Ok, I understand the recent furore over the exam results in England. I understand why Michael Gove has been heavily criticised for his role in proceedings.

No, Gove shouldn't have got involved in setting the bar for the grade criteria. He certainly shouldn't have changed the criteria during the academic year, effectively making it more difficult to achieve a grade B, for example, in August than it was to get the same grade for the same exam in January.

Yes, it is fairly obvious that he did those things in order to engineer a shift in exam policy and exam content towards the abolition of the current GCSE and A Level formats in favour of the eventual introduction of exams that are similar in content to the oft-lauded, so-called halcyon days of O Levels and their likes.

The recent debacle stinks and it is right and proper that Gove and his team are having to answer - or, more precisely, to expertly deflect - some tough questions.

However, all of that being said and understood, I cannot avoid being irked by the wailing response from many classroom teachers and head teachers o the outcome of Gove's meddling, namely that there has been the first recorded decrease in exam results nationally since the arrival of the current system more than two decades ago.

I realise that the change in criteria has messed with schools' predicted grades and other complicated, often unnecessary, number analyses. However, the angry reaction to the fall in performance is the polar opposite to the usual mumblings that greet the opening of large, brown envelopes during the summer: That exams are generally too easy nowadays and that something ought to be done to raise standards and to restore faith in this country's qualifications.

It is a fact that our exams are not challenging enough. This is only one among the many, serious problems that have plagued us for too many years. It is also a fact that, as I have said, something needs to change in order to bring about a renewed respect for the qualifications that our students are being awarded. So, while I disagree with Gove's tactics and while I sympathise with those students who have been treated unfairly, if the end result is a corpus of rigid, challenging and well-respected national exams at all levels - exams that students can be proud of having passed and that further education establishments and prospective employers can rely on as an indication of genuine, tested talent and future promise - then perhaps - perhaps - in this case the ends may well justify the means.