Two educational news stories caught my attention this week because they have such a revealing connection. The CEO of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Dr Richard Pike, is in the news for suggesting that exam boards should be fined for breaching standards, citing the absence of maths or science in some science exams as an example of their poor practice. The BBC covered a story that some Danish schools are allowing students to use the internet during exams. The key points about the use of the internet in exams are made during the video by a teacher who says: “The main thing we do is to educate the students as to what is cheating and what is not cheating,” and a student who adds, “Well some will try, some will get caught and some will get away with it.” Both are of course right. Research commissioned by JISC on plagiarism two years ago, revealed some truly worrying information about high levels of pupil cheating and highlighted the point about educating the children about right and wrong academic ethics.

As far as I’m concerned, using the internet in any exam designed and properly policed for its use, is an entirely sensible exercise, but the question the BBC reporter then posed in the video, is what connects the story to Dr Pike’s desire to fine exam boards. The reporter asks, “ So is the examination system in the UK, out of date?”

Cue the most pernicious and educationally damaging piffle at large in the UK educational world today. I’ve heard it voiced by a number of ICT zealots, at a number of conferences over the last two or three years and it has been gaining currency amongst techno-acolytes and minions so that you come across it on discussions and edublogs all over the place. No skilled or professional teacher who seeks and commands the respect of their pupils would of course give it kennel room but…that’s been the big problem for a decade or more now.

The argument goes something like this. Kids today are doing such cool, 21^st century things with technology, they are so amazingly creative and clever, why on earth are we still sitting them in an exam room with a paper and pen in an outmoded, nineteenth century fashion? Why are we testing them for range when we should be testing them for breadth?

This is just the latest manifestation of precisely the deceitful, egalitarian, social engineering that has led to Dr Pike having to demand exam boards are fined for failing to meet their fundamental educational responsibilities. The truth is that after years of bending over backwards in ways that would make a Chinese State Circus contortionist blanche, exams boards and many teachers have dumbed down things down to the point of utter irrelevance because they were far more interested in social engineering, than in educating the pupils to think and learn meaningfully for themselves. Behind that innocuous little word breadth lies an entire lifelong learning agenda that as Frank Furedi explains in his latest book, Wasted, undermines the notion of the teacher as expert, the value of formal education itself and I would add, actually despises the notion of schools. Never mind the quality...

Testing for breadth means it’s all equally valuable. Testing for range differentiates meaningfully, fuels competition and nurtures excellence. Things all the genuinely skilled teachers I have ever met, understand and value.