REGULAR readers of this column will be aware that I didn’t have a particularly happy time at school.

I actually hated the place but as the years have rolled by and I’ve got a little older and hopefully wiser, I am now prepared to admit that the problem lay with me and not with the school.

Certainly, it was strict. It was an all-boys grammar school run by an order of Catholic brothers and this was back in the days of corporal punishment which the brothers were quite happy to dish out. I think their motto was something along the lines of ‘spare the rod’.

But you were only beaten if you broke the rules and there were many of my fellow students who went through their entire school careers without ever being caned.
This was also back in the days of O-levels and frankly I didn’t do very well in my exams, which was hardly surprising given how many times I was absent (usually without good reason).

My biggest failing was maths. I didn’t get it, struggled badly and it came as a massive relief when my school declined to enter me for my maths O-level exam.

My headmaster suggested I might want to pay the fee myself to sit the exam but in my view that would have been a waste of money.

Of course, not having any qualifications in maths meant a lot of potential career opportunities were closed off to me but those are the sorts of stupid decisions you make – and later regret – when you are young and inexperienced.

(That particular story does have something of a happy ending. Many years later, when I was in my 50s, I went to ‘night school’ to take a maths GCSE course, getting a B in the exam which is more or less equivalent to a pass at grade 6 in the current system.)

I mention this after last week’s GCSE and A-level results were announced.

I think the first thing to say is at least the delivery of this year’s grades in England went smoothly, which was in stark contrast to the fiasco and confusion seen in 2020 when teacher-assessed grades were awarded at the last minute in place of grades derived from an algorithm that provoked a public uproar.

This year, exams in England were scrapped in January by education secretary Gavin Williamson, who chose to have teachers award grades by assessment, overseen by examination boards. Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, was happy enough, saying this year’s GCSE grades were “a fair and accurate reflection” of the ability of pupils receiving them.

As someone who struggled at school in normal times, I have nothing but admiration for those youngsters who have had the past 18 months of learning disrupted by the pandemic. 

There has been no other year group in history that has had to put up with online learning, ‘bubbles’ being sent home and teachers having to self-isolate after being pinged.

As Geoff Barton said: “These pupils deserve huge credit for having weathered the storm of the past 18 months.”

I couldn’t agree more. They have been marked by their teachers against rigorous criteria and deserve everything they have achieved (but I’ll bet there are moaners going on about ‘grade inflation’).

I know there’s talk about going back to exams rather than assessments for next year’s GCSEs and A-levels but surely the evidence is out there now that a combination of the two methods would be better and fairer.

On a completely different topic, it looks like we could be heading towards the great KFC chicken shortage of 2021.

In a message posted to its Twitter page, the fried chicken chain said customers may find ‘some items aren’t available’ and its packaging ‘may look different’.

KFC hasn’t said what food from its menu may be affected, or how many restaurants may be experiencing shortages. And the fast food chain also hasn’t said specifically what has caused the disruption to its supply chain.

But the fact remains that food supplies across supermarkets and retailers have been impacted in recent weeks by a shortage of HGV drivers thanks to a combination of Brexit and Covid, meaning there aren’t enough drivers to meet demand.

The Road Haulage Association estimates there is now a shortage of more than 100,000 drivers in the UK, out of a pre-pandemic total of about 600,000 and that number included tens of thousands of drivers from EU member states who were living and working in the UK but have gone back home, probably never to return.
So when you can’t get your bargain bucket or family feast, you can thank Brexit.