THE GCSEAND A-LEVEL RESULTS ARE IN, AND RECORD NUMBERS OF STUDENTS HA VE PASSED. THE FINGER POINTING HAS BEGUN, BUT MARK SIMMS WONDERS IF WE'RE MISSING A CRUCIAL POINT. It was a tense scene on BBC Breakfast, where the superficially jovial yet clearly world-weary and cynical roving reporter was stood with seven giddy GSCE students who were ready to tear open brown envelopes and reveal their exam results to the world. That's not something I'd have considered putting myself through 20 odd years back, but of course we didn't have Big Brother or Fame Academy back then, Times change. I don't want to fan any flames just yet, so let's err on the side of understatement by saying that, to a man (and one woman), the students were pleasantly surprised at their results - even the one poor chap who suffered the ignominy of dropping to a grade B in one subject.
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