The private schools have been taking the mickey out of the education system - so some say:

What does the dramatic fall in GCSE grades tell us? That private schools were gaming the system

We also seem to have a problem of bias - unconscious or not - in those who teach:

Unconscious bias in marking could be contributing to the underperformance of children from poorer backgrounds, researchers have suggested.

Teachers were more harsh in their grading of students from a lower socioeconomic background, a study from the University of Sussex appeared to show.

Those behind the study insisted it was not an “attack on teachers”, but rather should be used “as a mandate for educational institutions to better support teachers” with training to mitigate potential biases.

The findings, based on an experiment with 416 teachers, found a grading difference of 4.4 percentage points being awarded to those of higher and lower socioeconomic status.

None of us - well, all those other than the parents of richer but dimmer children - want the system to be this way. While many won’t go with the modern liberal insistence upon an equal outcome for everyone we do think we could find a solid majority for the old-style liberal ideal of at least all being judged by the same standards.

The dual accusation today being that this is not what is happening. Therefore we need a solution.

One does occur. Grading, that sorting into academic sheep and vocational goats, could be done by a double blind test. Something external to the organisations doing the teaching, against some known and set parcel of standards. Those doing the grading not knowing where the test comes from, those taking the test not knowing who will grade.

That would seem to solve the problems being complained of. All that’s left is to work out a name for this new system. Given that it is to examine the performance of the pupils, against some set and sacrosanct standard, we propose the portmanteau “examination”.

Who knows the system, if not the word, might catch on.