Dear Editor
I am concerned that young people are having church (and school CU activities) crowded out of their lives by pressure of school work. I am convinced that this has become a major problem. This year’s exam season has been a much bigger issue than ever before. Part of the problem lies in very pushy parents, and I fear that some of these young people have been in danger of making themselves ill.
Also, pressure is caused by people having to do four or even five A’ levels instead of the three studied until only a couple of years or so ago. I have since learned that grammar schools lose government funding if anyone takes less than the four subjects. I might have known that this increased workload was driven by ‘filthy lucre’! But I strongly suspect that non-selective schools would not be penalised by the same loss of funding if pupils take only the three subjects. Grammar schools are being penalised in this way by politicians who do not want grammar schools to continue. I suspect, too, that league tables don’t help. It seems wrong that top-performing schools still have to compete against each other for the top two or three places. There is a further issue in the way in which some schools have become super-selective. All this causes schools to inflate the amount of work set in conjunction with course-work over the year, in an attempt to inflate the number of people gaining four (or five) passes at ‘A’ grade.
