There are more concerns among secondary school teachers who through exam grades, are more publicly held to account for pupils' progress.
Cambridge, for example, simply rejects, reasonably, the benchmark based on exam grades (which equates a handful of good results with many indifferent ones).
Progressives saw competition between pupils or schools as divisive and regard the process of learning itself to be more important than measurable outcomes such as exam grades.
The scope for this lay in the fact that they had to decide where the boundary mark should be between exam grades each year, there being a natural tendency towards generosity.
Mr Lightman, leader of the Association of School and College Leaders, told MPs that he believed that the exam grades for pupils taking the English GCSE in the summer had been been forced downwards in an attempt to balance an "over-generous" marking in January - in a way that was unfair for individual students.
One unfortunate trend with the growth of higher education has been an increasing emphasis on exam and grades oriented learning, fueled by the proliferation of competitive entrance exams for science, engineering, medicine, law, etc. and tutorial centres who compete to prepare the students for these exams.
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Students may enter their exam number and get their grades online, along with the grade distribution for the rest of the class.
In 2007 roughly 178, 000 aspirants took the exam for the highest of the three grades of civil servant, comprising just 24, 000 jobs.
He believes that pressure on schools for top results is leading them to seek out exam boards that give the greatest number of top grades.
Head teachers' leader Brian Lightman, who has campaigned over GCSE English grades, says it shows trust in the exam system is at an "all time low".
More than 45, 000 students are to resit their English GCSEs next month after a row about grades, figures given to the BBC by exam boards show.
The backdrop to the challenges to exam results this summer has been the dispute over GCSE English grades, which is to be subject to a judicial review.
The QCA will be scrutinising exam papers and candidates' scripts this year more than ever in the effort to try to ensure that standards are maintained - but says it does not intervene with the exam boards to tell them where to fix the boundaries between grades.
From now on, Mr Andrews wants exam boards to use a separate Wales-only system for awarding grades.
She said there had been many "significant unknowns" in changes to modules of the GCSE English exam, which had to be resolved in the final awarding of grades.
Most of the controlled assessment work was submitted in the summer and when examiners saw evidence of over-marking, exam boards raised grade boundaries, leading some pupils to receive poorer grades than expected.
BBC: GCSE English: Teachers' anger over generous marking claim
"Last year 96% of pupils sat an exam that included English literature and more young people are achieving the higher grades in English each year, " said Mr Knight.
A-level won't stop grades being devalued: better to encourage the use of a separate exam.
Mr Robinson's suggestion is that as schools find some exam boards harder than others, they opt for the papers that deliver the highest grades.
ECONOMIST: Are competing exam boards driving down standards?
Exam boards will have to tighten controlled assessments and will not be allowed to issue grades for exams and controlled assessments sat in January 2013.
The exam regulator has faced strong criticism from school leaders over this year's GCSE English grades.
Pupils who lost exam work in the blaze were told by the AQA examination board they would still be awarded grades.
King Edward VI secondary school in Bury St Edmunds, where the AQA English exam is taken, said 53% of its pupils got the five GCSE A-C grades, compared to 64% last year.
Exam regulator Ofqual says this has meant changes to more than 45, 000 GCSE and A-level grades in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
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