Education Secretary Michael Gove plans to scrap dumbed-down GCSEs and reintroduce O-levels, a tougher benchmark. And who can argue with his thinking?
I took my O-levels 26 years ago, one of the last to do so before their abolition in 1988. Since then grades have consistently risen as standards have slipped.
School-leavers today have a wealth of information and educational resources at their disposal that would have flummoxed our class of 1986 but to what end? I may barely be able to work a microfiche but at least I can spell.
I now lecture on journalism at Bournemouth University. The undergraduates are computer-literate, engaged and ambitious. But, blunted by spellchecks, technology and the undeniable shift in education, their spelling and syntax leave much to be desired.
Semi-colons are a mystery to them, apostrophes anathema.
Academics have called for A-levels to be tougher. The Russell Group, which represents 20 of the UK's leading universities, says maths A-level is not "challenging enough" and English needs more "robust critical analysis".
Without the basic building blocks, further education is largely pointless. Tweaking A-levels may be desirable but earlier change is vital.
Our children are being taught how to run, but not how to walk.
My daughter is five years old, a bright pupil at a lauded Church of England primary. But while she knows all about global warming, she cannot tackle basic mathematics.
Gove - often described as the only real Tory - does struggle with the common touch. He has been mocked for his wish to re-establish Latin as a core subject at secondary schools.
I studied Latin from the age of nine and went on to read it at university but even I draw the line on Gove's desire to make classics mandatory. I would far rather schools produced teenagers who were able to speak Spanish or Mandarin - increasingly empowering skills in the global market - than be able to read Livy.
But Gove has a genuine love of learning and the opportunities it gifts. State school educated, he excelled academically, later becoming union president at Oxford University.
And only a fool could suggest that our school system does not need an overhaul. The closure of selective grammar schools in favour of lowest-common-denominator comprehensives has proved a disaster.
So too, our modern obsession with further education for all, is mistaken. Politicians have sought to turn polytechnics and, worse, technical colleges into universities. Why is a three-year arts degree with no obvious job at its end seen as more beneficial to society and to the individual than a vocational skill?
Life is all about personal choice. And education should be no different.
I quibble with Gove over his quintessentially Conservative fondness for reinvention. In truth, I see no reason why GCSEs should be replaced by O-levels. Why not just make GCSEs tougher? A name means nothing.
Just as Margaret Thatcher's cabinet hoped - and, sadly, was proved right - that rebranding the poll tax as the council tax would appease the electorate, the coalition clearly prefers to reboot than revamp.
But, that aside, Gove's suggested restructuring is an undoubted step in the right direction. More than a million young people are currently unemployed in this country.
An education of substance - rather than worthless, upmarked certificates - is their only life raft.
Follow Adam Lee-Potter on Twitter: www.twitter.com/adamleepotter
What needs to happen is that these parties come together to formulate a system that delivers for the common good. I know this approach is totally alien and is not the British style but that is what's needed.
The present arrangement cannot be called a success. UK employers are finding the education system does not deliver the vocational training they need but who cares what they want? Universities report that the present system does not give them what they want with much time having to be spent on remedial teaching.
The politically imposed equality agenda is not the answer as neither employers or universities are happy.
There is a huge range of academic ability but employers don't want academic people for all roles as academics would be a danger to themselves in the workplace.
Why is it impossible in the UK to have a reasoned discussion between the various parties and come up with a system that works in practice? The main reason for German success in business is they are capable of putting factional interests to one side for the common good and designing systems that deliver for society.
As for this new bright idea of Gove's.... just how many millions will it cost us, and will it really be worth is? nope.... just make the exams harder in core subjects.
........ and when, oh when, will we decide on a national standard for a second language... if anything is letting our youngsters down, its a lack of a second language. We should all be able to speak, say, Spanish, mandarin, or whatever, but as far as I know, no government has even considered introducing one, or thought about which one it should be.
Seems to me that should be mandatory for any child growing up now. But you don't hear any Tories advocating it. Know why? Because they didn't have to learn it at school, of course. They are so arrogant that they can only imagine people being as fabulous as themselves. Which means learning classics and being quietly smug and almost boasting about "not being terribly good at science and maths, I'm afraid".
Only one MP is a trained scientist. Makes you worry.
The important lesson from 25 years of GCSEs is that COMPETITION DOES NOT IMPROVE QUALITY.
The Conservatives must learn this important lesson, and immediately begin applying it to public transport, public utilities and healthcare.
They aren't going to like that one, GJ.
That's the most basic idea they have.
You know, that dreary skill where you can watch what you're typing on the screen and use all your fingers on the keyboard as you're writing on a computer?
I'd suggest that it's a skill that should be essential to any modern student, but I haven't seen any proposals to make it happen. Everywhere you go you see people using the same standard keyboard ineptly.
I bet Gove (the ex-journalist) can't do it. And what's more I bet he thinks it's a skill useful only to underlings, whereas Latin - oh, you're going to need that to do The Times' Crossword..
The fact that this ghastly "full speed ahead back to the fifties" Tory is in charge of education chills me to the bone. He shouldn't be allowed anywhere near modern children.
And during that 25 year period standards have slipped. So what does that say to you, we need MORE inteference from politicians?
Yeah, of course.
The most successful school system in the world, bar none, is Finland. Guess what? They have the most decentralised, deregulated system in the world too - one where the educators are trusted.
We don't trust, we blame. We carp, we crab, we always know best. Just look at the array of ignorant comments you find on Huffpost.
Labelling half your kids useless failures was the 'disaster', Mr. Lee-Potter. Not comprehensives.