In a survey of 471 youngsters aged 15-19:

Six out of 10 believed that:

Only two out of 10 disagreed.

And although it may be commonplace on occasion, to accentuate the negative in terms of exam and school performance in news reports - such reporting does not always give a full or accurate picture of ability and potential.  Young people often have a lot more to offer than we give them credit for," says Wright.

"And as history shows, school performance isn't necessarily the best predictor of future success.

"Churchill was a poor performer at school," he continues, "Einstein struggled with his school diploma, and Charlotte Bronte's school report in 1825 said that 'she knew nothing about grammar' and wrote 'indifferently'.   So what's new?

"A trawl through reports on examinations from the roaring 20s upwards reveals that there was no 'golden age' as this report illustrates: The standard of English was no worse than in previous years, but is still very unsatisfactory. .The most evident if not the most serious weakness is in the spelling.  A few examples will suffice: ammount, Brittain, Britian, buisness, bussiness, deffinate, fourty, fivety, ocurred, occured, payed, polytitions, publically, usualy (O level 1958).

"In the Newbolt Report (1921) Lever Brothers reported:.it is a great surprise and disappointment to us to find that our young employees are so hopelessly deficient in their command of English.

"And in the late 70s and early 80s an O level examining board (AEB) introduced a very popular series of basic tests - beginning with arithmetic and English - as employers complained that even with O levels in these subjects, students couldn't count or do mental arithmetic, they couldn't spell, and had little understanding of grammar and punctuation .

"But then even Shakespeare spelt his name three different ways in a single document and his texts were thick with spelling errors.

"So regardless of the generation to which any of us belong, we can be certain that it was one in which we could have done better - as many journalists, parents, academics, successful business people or the famous can vouch - if candid about early performance and shortcomings, as judged by their elders, and oft-called betters, of the time.  So what did they say about your chances and your generation, and have you put all that behind you and gone on to succeed, despite what was said?" he asks.

Notes to Editors

1.      Information about structure, membership and the aims of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors is given on the website: www.ciea.org.uk. 

2.      Further information from George Turnbull on 01252 623561 or 07889 320830. School Certificate 1926 (JMB) - History: A deadly mediocrity prevailed.

• School  Certificate 1929 (JMB) - English Literature: . An increasing number of candidates disregard punctuation and grammatical construction in their own writing. Quite unrelated sentences are separated by a comma; semi-colons are used indiscriminately for commas.  ... .The use of the word colourful should be made a penal offence for girls.
• School Certificate 1931 (JMB) - Greek and Roman History: It was deplorable to find Pompey described as a gate-crasher and as not caring a hang for the constitution, or Cleopatra as tying to vamp Octavius .
• School Certificate 1934 (JMB) - Spanish: A large proportion of candidates . failed to realise that the menace of French canons would belong, not to the military, but to ecclesiastical history.
• School Certificate 1934 (JMB) - Pure Mathematics:  In every respect the work of the candidates was on the whole disappointing .It is evident that a very large number of the candidates were quite unfitted for an examination at this stage and that their knowledge was largely superficial.
  
• O level 1958 (JMB) - General Paper:  The standard of English was no worse than in previous years, but is still very unsatisfactory. ..The most evident if not the most serious weakness is in the spelling.  A few examples will suffice: ammount, Brittain, Britian, buisness, bussiness, deffinate, fourty, fivety, ocurred, occured, payed, polytitions, publically, usualy.
• O level 1958 (JMB) - English Language:  It was distressing to find that most candidates could not set out a formal letter.  Few would have been granted an interview on the evidence of their letters, which were often curt and even rude, while the excuses offered for the postponement of the interview were generally unreal.
• A level 1955 (JMB) - English Literature:  Necessary to deplore the misuse of language . . The standards of the inferior journalist . . Symptoms of wilful wrong-headedness.
• S level 1960 (JMB) - English Literature: The root cause of a serious decline in competence - out of well over 900 scripts all but a small number showed that the candidate could not understand the plain sense of English words singly and in combination . . Weak, loose vocabulary, appalling punctuation.