YEP says: We should give A-level students the credit they deserve

Issy Armstrong a 'A' level pupil at The Grammar School at Leeds, celebrates her results with her friends

We know how much hard work, effort and worry has gone into those exam results from the pupils, and their teachers and schools, and it must be more than a little disheartening to have to listen to the negative “they ain’t what they used to be” comments, which have become part of the annual debate around these exams.

What we must do is ensure these exams equip young people for their lives ahead - and that does not just mean university or higher academic education.

Whether that 18-year-old is now going on to further their studies, take up a job or an apprenticeship does not matter.

All are equally valid ways and means into adult life.

What’s vital is that those who are going to borrow a lot of money to further their education to degree level get value for money.

So whilst it is right to quiery whether degree courses are really taking the cream of the crop academically, rather than filling places and making the books balance, we should also want to ensure those students are getting good courses. And none of this should take away from the effort A-level students have made.

See A-level results from Leeds and West Yorkshire schools and colleges here