Are students cleverer than ever or are the examiners just more generous when it comes to giving final grades?
As upper-secondary school students take their final exams over the next few weeks, this vexed question has been raised once again.
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The confederation of Danish industry, Dansk Industri, is certainly worried about what they perceive as being an unfortunate trend, reports Politiken.
“This is exactly what we feared. There has been a massive inflation in grades,” said Mette Fjord Sørensen, the head of higher education at DI.
“Not only are there too many upper-secondary school students being given a grade score of 12 but there is also a trend where more students get top grades each year,” she added.
Hard to spot the real high flyers
The organisation is concerned that this makes it almost impossible for employers to spot the brightest students if everyone gets a grade 12.
The grading system was overhauled in 2006-2007 and goals set for the expected distribution of the new grades. At that time, it was expected that every 10th student would attain a 12.
However, nowadays around 50 percent of the final papers are graded 10 or 12, so companies worry that they can’t rely on the grades reflecting the level that they expect.
