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It's Systemic, Stupid.
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It's Systemic, Stupid.

Richard Merrick's avatar
Richard Merrick
Aug 11, 2021
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Outside the Walls
Outside the Walls
It's Systemic, Stupid.
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"It's the economy, stupid"

Strategist James Carville in advising Bill Clinton in his successful 1992 campain against George.H.W.Bush

On Monday, we got the IPCC report on climate change, which has generated "code red" headlines and apparent soul searching as we come to terms with what we are facing is systemic and of our own making.

On Tuesday, we learned the results of school exams and discovered that over forty-four per cent received top grades, compared to around 25% pre-pandemic. An immediate outcry of "grade inflation" as I listened to a hapless secretary of state for education struggle to explain any coherent approach to how we assess our young people's education whilst apparently failing to appreciate that education, like climate change, is a human problem, not a technical problem. Both are systemic.

It raised a question in my mind - for whose benefit is the exam system designed? Is it to assess what students understand and help them evaluate the direction of their lives, or is it a…

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