Somebody please raise testing standards.

About 2 years ago, I saw that a post-graduate on The Apprentice was unable to work out in her head the change that was required from a £20 – and it reinforced to me that the education ‘system’ if you like, was not ‘fit for purpose’.   So the news coming through right now that Exam Boards have been making exams easier so as to be more attractive for schools to purchase from them rather than a competitor is hardly surprising.  Employers have been saying for a long time now that the academic ability of the average school leaver is effectively unemployable – to no effect.

There are similarities in the driving training industry.  Pretending that driving standards are increasing when we have ever increasing insurance premiums is nonsense.  Not enough emphasis is placed on the importance of a rigorous test at the end of the training.  I realise that comparing academic qualifications with a life skill such as driving is not too clever, but in principle, the end test is the means by which you assess if the learning is sufficient enough to be fit for purpose. 

The practical test for Learners sets the benchmark of the training they receive.  There is enough evidence out there to realise that training providers are dumbing down training so as to appeal more attractive to the customers.  You only need look at the national pass rate to appreciate that even with the standard of the test as low as it is, people are often not meeting that standard.  Training providers get very defensive and some start to aggressively claim that is not how THEY go about their business.  But this is all hot air, because, most people will instinctively defend their corner to the claim I’m making here, I’d expect them to.  But you have to look at the facts.  The DSA are speaking to newly qualified drivers who have passed their test – and are being told that often they don’t feel equipped for driving independently post-test; and these are people that pass!

It seems to me that many training providers in the driving industry are too prepared to defend their corner in just the way that school Heads will defend their ever increasing exam results.  It fools no-one.  People can hide behind stats, but unless there is a proper assessment of the ‘end product’ that ensures the learning standard attained is fit for the purpose it is designed, we will continue to see this decline. 

A case in point is the blog I put up the other day about an organisation providing intensive course training.  To be making yourself stand out from competitors by implying that your training will ensure that you never have an accident that can be your fault is appalling – there is no other way to describe it, they should be ashamed that they are prepared to drop to such levels in the name of winning business.   And this is precisely my point, if you simply let organisations compete for business (schools included) with little regard to the output, then should we really be surprised to find the output is later found to be lacking?

The practical test should be longer in duration and the examiner should be allowed to question the candidate as they feel appropriate to test depth of learning.  There should be a variety of manoeuvre type exercises that reflect what will be required post-test – the current test of a random single manoeuvre is like testing a footballer in trials, by asking him/her to do as many ‘keepy ups’ as possible – utterly meaningless.