It may be overshadowed in recent days by the Labour conference, the re-ignition of the Blair-Brown row and the failed health vote, but Labour has admitted (in not so many words) a staggering failure of the education system - the coursework modules. For the last 20 years, since the GCSEs were established over the more traditional essay-based O levels, coursework has played an ever increasing role in the British education system. And whilst the broadening of the system to further include those who are stressed witless during the exam season is most excellent in theory, it was hijacked by those most unscrupulous individuals: those who abused the system and cheated (myself included!).

Before we go on, it must be said that I didn't cheat per se, more like my school cheated. But therein lies the fault of the system. Schools are pressurised for results. If 99% of students don't get A*+ in every exam, the school is closed down and stripped for parts, the students sold for slave labour and every other teacher must donate a kidney to pay off the debt (or something like that). So what do schools do? Unable to boost the exam grades any further than making the exams easier (which benefits everyone but the students), they turn to 'helping' students with their independent coursework. Every science class we were in gave model answers for all our coursework needs, our maths teacher left a copy of the markscheme lying about and our English teacher gave such good notes that when strung together with a few conjuctives gave me several A*++ essays. Perhaps telling is the fact that the two essays for which we were left to fend for ourselves, I managed a low B in - something I am still unjustifiably proud of right now.

And ours was a good school. I know of some schools that refused to help in this way, with predictable results and an ever increasing circle of failure as funds were denied; and some that went even further, providing them with study guide books and telling students where certain websites were that 'helped' for a small fee. Because that was the price we paid for coursework. What was passable as an A-grade essay in an exam would be placed in the reject pile in coursework. You either made an essay worthy of Shakespeare, or you fell by the wayside and settled for your 29/30 (which was most probably a D).

And so steps in our current government. Firstly they have banned maths coursework, which involves far too much English to warrant the subject, and have now placed coursework under 'supervision' with time restraints. Surely this is just an extra long boring exam? How does this benefit those who don't thrive in an exam environment? Did they think through the extra time and effort needed by overstretched schools to implement this? I think not. This will, I can safely assume, impact on teaching for the exams (or push them back to the joy of students), which means further reductions in grades. And annotated texts were banned in exams only last year, something which were more than a crutch in my exams.

So, when next year's results are published with predictably high pass rates, don't moan that exams are getting easier. Because without any oppurtunities to cheat in skillful ways like we did, GCSE and A level students are thrown in at the deep end with 100% exams (essentially) without any help or resources. The 20 year experiment is over. Coursework is dead. Long live exams...

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