http://www.newstatesman.com/200411290022

According to the source above, Alan Johnson was once a communist! He even says himself that:

"I wasn't a Trot, I was more CPGB (Communist Party of Great Britain). I did consider myself to be a Marxist - I read more chapters of Das Kapital than Harold Wilson"

No wonder we have the Brighton lottery admission for oversubscribed schools. No wonder UCAS is now supplying background information and ethnicity to Unis BEFORE admission. Our Education Minister is a Commie!

Pete, Cov,

What a profoundly crackpot idea.

We have mystery random shoppers. Now we have mystery random examinations.

Not only that, the victims aren't told their scores. RTheir papers are locked away until next year. So why put them through it.

This, if nothing else, demonstrates that the sole motivation is to test schools, not children.

Dru Brooke-Taylor, Bristol,

I find the comment from one poster about her being a Ph.D student 'doing my Ph.D' peculiar. During my time I was called a candidate and there was no such thing as doing a Ph.D. There was only a lot of work to be done which may not lead to a Ph.D title. And until the bundle of papers is assessed and the title conferred one may not even know what he/she is doing (neither his supervisor) that may not be up to a Ph.D standard. Which is to say, there is no such thing as 'doing a Ph.D', top university or not. The award is by (yet another kind of) examination.

Em Phil, Phuket, Thailand

When I was at senior school we would sit internal exams twice a year, every year. Consequently when it came time for public exams such as GCSEs, A-levels and further on to university exams, I felt well prepared for them. Exams did not terrify me, as they were something I was very used to. I believe that it was this level of preparation, of practising exams and their being so familiar to me, that helped me to do well throughout my education.

However, as a child if I had been given a choice whether or not to take these exams I am sure I would have decided not to take them, I probably would have pleaded that I was not ready yet.

Jo, London,

3% of pupils, so maybe one per class, only a handful from even the biggest primary schools. We would loose the ability to measure teacher and school performance.

I can not see the point in such a test.

Hamish, London,

Random select, random sample -- what a random idea!
These education proposals are from people who have not themselves gone through rigours of higher education to succeed in the real world. Exams, if nothing else, train one to think on the spot, perform under time pressure, develop mental agility and toughness, which is what the work world looks for in competent, effective workers. With all due respect, think, England now has Alan Johnson who started as a postman, never went to university, and now Education Minister, what weight do these ideas have?
Why do people think "US has a similar system" is an argument for any proposal? If one has any sense of hisory, remember in US debates on declining education standard started 30 some years ago, with people recognising that lack of British-style rigorous exam cause children to fail in basic reading, writing skills, or to acquire hard facts, now US want some form of national exam too. Read E.D. Hirsch's "Closing of the American Mind."

Ginny, Connecticut, USA

Yes sure remove exams and together with it if there was any incentive to learn anything you will remove that too. I am a PhD student doing my PhD at one of the best universities of the UK and I come from an exam based system and forget about what psychologists tell you about intrinsic versus extrisnsic motivation, exams are good for giving feedback to students and to tell them how much learning they have done and how much more they need to do to get where they want to be, if the exams are removed there is no incentive to learn whatsoever. I watch my step children being educated in this country now and I feel "what a lousy system". My step daughter last week was saying "I will drop physics GCSE because I will never use physics in my life so its pointless!". No wonder the British education system is going down in standards every day. If you ask me, I would start with abolishing the exam watchdog!

Gina, ,

Hasn't Ken Boston caused enough chaos to the curriculum and examination system in this country already?

The QCA should be abolished.

MarkS, Leeds,

So education is to become a lottery? Funny, I thought it already was.

Tom Farrier, Weybridge, UK

Where do these people get these crazy ideas from?
It states that:
Many tests could be taken online “at the pupil’s choice if he or she felt ready” - so if a pupil declares that he/she is not ready day in day out, that pupil never gets tested?

Chanaka Jayawardhena, Leicester, UK