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This would be fine if today's exams were as well-designed and challenging as they were in the past, where to do well required a very sound understanding of the topics covered, often requiring knowledge of several different topics to answer a single question, as well as sophisticated problem-solving ability. However today's GCSE and A level exams are simply not like this by any stretch of the imagination and the vast majority of students are having their education crippled as a result. The development of the Pre-U, which is much like the A levels of old, is an explicit attempt to counter this trend and return the more rigorous standards of the past.

Sabbir I think the problem is that todays exams are catering for a whole different number of students than the times you are talking about and therefore clearly things have had to change.  I remain convinced for the brightest mathematicians the pathways are still there.  The number of students who study A-level maths has vastly increased since the time you are talking about.  That is why numbers who are taking Further Maths are increasing and then leading on to Step papers.

As I have already alluded to, I do not have an issue with STEP papers, but like the Pre-U, only the elite few actually take these. If the Pre-U were made compulsory and A levels abolished (with the GCSE being replaced by a Pre-U version of the old O levels, with perhaps a new CSE for those students who have no intention of further study), then we might see a change. But even if this were miraculously to happen, the new problem would be (and indeed is) in finding teachers with adequate ability and training to actually teach the course.

I don't understand how you can compare qualifcations that were sat by a few to a qualfication that is now sat by the many.  As you say STEP and Pre-U are for the Eilite and it is only right that they are being catered for.  Are your children not likely to go down this route?  If so what is your concern.  By the time they reach 18 they will have had the education that it sounds like you would like them to have.

DM:

The "agenda" I was referred to was your plan to accelerate children to university at the age of 13 or 14.   University is not just about acquiring knowledge.  As you have pointed out, it is perfectly possible to acquire knowledge in your own home (without shelling out £££ for tuition fees).   

I believe my university experiences transformed me into the person I am today.   It certainly did a lot for my confidence and afforded me the opportunity to become independent and interact with people from completely different backgrounds.   If children are accelerated in this way, they are bound to miss out on the major social part of the university experience and I consider that a terrible shame.

I do not think children should be attending university at 13 or 14 and did not mean to propose such a thing. Neither did I mean to suggest that they should be forced to study instead of playing or relaxing or taking part in extracurricular activities. I do however think that students should not be hampered from achieving their potential and should be allowed to progress at their own pace whether that be above or below the average (some children are slow starters, while others appear to be prodigious but then fizzle out later). If very bright students can progress at an accelerated rate, then I see no harm in encouraging them to stretch themselves beyond the usual syllabus and delve more deeply into whichever topics their interests may lie.

DM:

I will not comment on the Pre-U as other members of this forum know a lot more about this qualification than me but STEP is aimed at the top 2% of Year 13 mathematicians in the country Sabbir.   It is not supposed to be for everyone.  

"If today's exams were as well-designed and challenging as they were in the past", hardly anyone would pass them.   They would then cease to be fit for purpose.   We work with what we are given.   This does not mean the "vast majority of students are having their education crippled."   It just means that you are out-of-touch with reality.

As I think you already know, I was referring to today's GCSEs and A levels here, and not the STEP papers. The current system means that students in general, and not just the top 2%, are not achieving their potential. You may disagree with this assessment and believe that the current system is somehow perfect (but if that is so, then it is probably not me that needs the reality check). I do not think that having record numbers of students passing their levels yet being unable to carry out basic algebraic manipulations or solve simple 2-step problems without being spoonfed the answers is a particularly satisfying situation for anyone, except perhaps for government spin doctors.

Do you believe all children have a right to this enhanced education Sabbir or just Muslim children?   I ask as you only "teach" Muslim children.

Your website alarms me.   It is a known distributor of malware.   Google says "Of the 7 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 2 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2010-12-28, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2010-12-28."

Can you explain your history on the sci-tech website?   On this site you are accused of "using the handle of a dead mathematician" and are then called a "f**king deceptive piece of ****"  and a "fraud" by the moderators.  

This took me 5 minutes to uncover.   God knows what might be revealed if I dug deeper.

No, this is not just me having a gripe about my children's education (they all go to good schools), and I am not (intentionally, at least) just harking back to "good old days" that never were - rather I am concerned with how much better things could be. I am not a full time teacher but I do teach GCSE and A level students for two hours a week at a supplementary school in South London and am frustrated to find myself having to "teach to the exam". I am teaching much the same topics to my 10- and 11-year-olds (who are perhaps slightly above average but certainly not geniuses).

Neither am I speaking out of a vacuum. There have been a number of interesting studies looking at the changing standards and methods in mathematics teaching over time. See for example:

"The value of mathematics" by Kounine, Marks and Truss
"Tackling the Mathematics Problem" (LMS) http://cms.ac.uk/policy/tackling_maths_prob.pdf
"Mathematics at the Interface (1960-2000)" by Savage, Kitchen, Sutherland and Porkess
"The crisis in Further Mathematics and how MEI and Gatsby are working to address it" by Charlie Stripp
"Reference levels in School Mathematics Education in Europe - Nation Presentation, England" by Tony Gardiner (2000)
"Learning to prove: using structured templates for multi-step calculations as an introduction to local deduction" by Tony Gardiner
"Beyond the Soup Kitchen - Thoughts on revising the Mathematics Structures/Frameworks for England" by Tony Gardiner
"Challeging Mathematics: Challenging to whom? And to what end?" by Tony Gardiner
[There are numerous other related articles by Tony Gardiner, one of the most notable and outspoken critics of falling standards in mathematics]
"An assessment of University-entrance level mathematics un England: an analysis of key influences of the qualification during the period 1951-2000" by Little and Jones
"Change in Mathematics education since the late 1950's - Ideas and realisation in Great Britain" by A. G. Howson
"Recent Developments in School Mathematics" by T. H. Fairlie
"Laying the Foundations of Numeracy - A Comparison of Primary School Textbooks in Britain, Germany and Switzerland" by Helvia Bierhoff
"Mathematics textbooks and their use in English, French and German classrooms" by Pepin, Haggerty & Keynes
"An analysis of mathematics textbooks and reference books in use in primary and secondary schools in England and Wales in the 1960s" by John Breakell.
"Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs and Curriculum Reform" by Handal and Herrington
"Making mathematics count" by Smith
"The Retreat from Scholarship" by Christopher Ray, High Master, The Manchester Grammar School
"The O Level Book: Genuine Exam Questions from Yesteryear" by Martin Stephen, Headmaster at St Paul's School.
"A Sociological Analysis of School Mathematics Texts" by Paul Dowling

This is taken from the first reference mentioned above:

"The difficulty and demand of questions has seen a gradual decline since the inception of O-levels in 1951. An analysis of mathematics O-level and GCSE papers between 1951 and 2006 shows this. There are three phases that can be identified: in 1951 to 1970 questions were rigorous and demanding; in 1980 to 1990, despite the content of the curriculum being identical to previous years, the simplifying trend was already taking place; and 1990 to present, when questions had became significantly shorter and simpler."

Best wishes,

Sabbir