The Arts in Schools - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

achievement. 1 If all candidates were to be given 'A' therewould be complaints about falling standards or 'fixing'. Forthe system to have any credibility there has to be a proportionof failures. A pupil's placing in the list does not depend solelyon personal performance. He or she may improve performanceby 100% over a year, but if everyone else improves similarly,personal grades will be no higher than before. To obtain abetter grade a student must take it from students higher upthe list by out-performing one or more of them. Moreover,children are entered in groups for examinations at the end ofa course of study which they will have started at the sametime: the starting and finishing point is based, for the mostpart, on how old they are. All that we know about childrentells us that they develop and mature, in every respect, atdifferent rates. Two pupils do not always reach the samestate of readiness for examinations at the same time even iftheir latent potential for success is the same. There areobvious shortcomings in taking children at these arbitrarypoints in their personal development, and comparing themwith other children who may be at quite different points, todecide, often once and for all, whether they have passed orfailed. Naturally some children do well and these may bequoted in defence of the system. But how do we take stockof the vast waste of potential among those who have beenprematurely written-off?141 Theelement offailure142 Argumentsforexaminingthe artsIt is not the explicit function of public examinations to failchildren, but an element of failure is inescapable in thedistribution of relative grades. In order to 'maintain standards'it is essential to limit the number of passes and ensure apercentage of failure. The experience of failure is a constantpresence in such examinations and for those children who are'failed' it can have a deep effect on self-esteem and motivation:more especially where the experience is repeated.They may, of course, be driven to work harder. They maybe led to disparage the whole affair and become antipatheticor hostile to learning. The experience of failure can havesignificant consequences by negating the positive purposes forwhich schools exist.Despite these difficulties, there are three main groups ofargument currently advanced for introducing arts examinationsin schools.a VocationalSchools should be preparing children for life in the adultworld and should give them skills and the evidence thatthey have them. Examinations provide vocationalsupport.87