Recalling exams of 60 years ago

THE month of August, I suspect, will always be the date that reminds me of the conclusion of my school days. I was fortunate to have obtained a grammar school place and I recently found a paper that my mother had signed agreeing to me remaining at school to complete the fifth-year exams.

For me, that final year was in 1959. The first cohort to take the new O-level exams sat them just a few years earlier, in 1951.

Nowadays, all our children complete five years at secondary school and their examinations have become the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE).

I am always reminded that this exam was introduced in 1987 for all 16-year-olds to take and then the O-levels were withdrawn.

My daughter was in the final year of O-levels, and my son also sat these in the year previous to that. Both got the good results we wanted and went on to take GCE A-levels before spending three or four years at university.

The titles of these tests may have evolved over the years, as have the subjects that are studied, but the education routes thereafter are still the key target.

As August came around this year, the results for the completion of Year 11 and also Year 13 were eagerly awaited by the students about to finish school. These still reflect the conclusion of either the fifth year or the end for the upper sixth that is usually the finish of secondary schooling.

The changes compared to my years in education are what happens nowadays once schooldays have been finished.

For a start there are many more universities, as those that once were polytechnics or colleges of further education have been elevated to university status.

This now means that all who seek a university place can now take it provided they, or their families, can meet the much higher cost and reduced grants of this century.

The other major change in post16 opportunity has been the requirement to continue in some form of further education after school years.

The intent of many to leave school after GCSE studies is now replaced by the requirement to continue studying until the age of 18. This may be by finding an apprenticeship or taking on further study at a college. The Derby Roundhouse is a popular centre for this training.

This can lead to a chance to start a foundation year at university and catch up with colleagues who started that route after A-levels, and thus create yet another route into higher education.

Sometimes, however, I do suspect it is just a way of passing a couple of years before trying to find a job that is marginally better than being unemployed.

This is all fresh in my mind following an email from one of my studentship colleagues. He copied his note to all of us who started work then to remind us that the first Monday in September this year will mark the 60th anniversary of our start in that railway training scheme. It was the beginning of what proved to be an excellent career, but many of us have clearer memories of the golf course or bowls club most of us now frequent.

This time around I have enjoyed the memory recall of those years as an 18-year-old trying to exist on a weekly wage of around £5 a week! I was lucky as I could live at home and commute to the training placements. A few of my new friends actually lived in places like Doncaster and commuting was not an option. I do recall that they lived in the Railway Hostel at Ilford and were given a train ticket to go home once a month!

They all completed the course and career to retirement, so it must have been regarded as a good training.

Sometimes I do suspect it is just a way of passing a couple of years before trying to find a job