What are A-levels for?

Abstract

On achieving power, the coalition government was quick to fulfil its election pledge to abolish as many quangos as reasonable in the shortest possible time. Among the first to go was the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. One of the principal roles of the authority had been to set the criteria which were used by the awarding organisations (AOs) to develop their A-level (and GCSE) specifications. The AOs themselves set the papers, arrange for them to be marked and make the awards. In principle, another quango, Ofqual, polices the system and, in particular, monitors the standard of the papers. However, Ofqual is underfunded and has no subject expertise. As a result, it is generally accepted that in physics standards have fallen, an observation easily verified by comparing current papers with those of two decades ago.