Thousands of pupils in England and Wales are anxiously waiting for their GCSE results.

Pupils in Northern Ireland have already received their grades and, as with last week's A-level results, more students than ever passed.

The increased pass rate in the A-levels prompted critics to say that the exams are getting easier.

Shadow Education Secretary Damian Green has called for an independent enquiry into exam quality.

But teachers and pupils are more concerned with the number of exams that pupils have to take.

They say that since the introduction of AS-levels in 2000, students are overworked and timetables were chaotic as a result.

Why are pass rates increasing? Are pupils under too much pressure? What, if anything, should be changed in the education system?

Eamonn O'Kane, the General Secretary of the NASUWTanswered your questions in a LIVE forum for the BBC's Six O'clock news, presented by Manisha Tank.

Transcript

Manisha Tank:
Hello and a warm welcome to the Six Forum. I'm Manisha Tank. We're talking about education because thousands of school pupils across the country are going to be anxiously awaiting their GCSE results due on Thursday.

The A level results came in a week ago and it seems that more students than ever were passing those exams - no wonder the critics jumped up quickly and said - the exams must be getting easier and the candidates not getting any better. Lots of you disagreed. So we'll be putting questions and comments to our guest.

Also what about those students that haven't even received their A level results yet? Will it be the same for some of those awaiting their GCSE results? Joining us is Eamonn O'Kane, General Secretary of the NASUWT. First of all I'm going to start with this issue of the fact that a lot of students haven't even received A level results up until now.

We have a text message from Nathan Hartley in Bath saying: I was in the same situation as a girl that was featured on the Six O'Clock News. Edexcel made we wait four days for my results.

What are your comments about the fact that there are still students out there who won't even know where they'll be going in terms of university?

Eamonn O'Kane:
There's absolutely no justification for it I am afraid it's an example of some of the mistakes and pressures that have been placed on the examinations boards in recent months where errors have taken place - either exam papers have been misplaced or have gone astray.

In this particular case - and I hope it's confined to very few cases - where their A level results have not been delivered on time, I think that is deplorable and it really is something that the examining board that is responsible really must rectify in future.

Manisha Tank:
You have mentioned that some of the examination boards are under pressure, well, so are many of the students and they're certainly feeling it, the ones who are still waiting for results.

Simon Harris, student in the UK: The lower sixth form used to be a time when students could broaden their interests and begin to enjoy the subjects they were studying without the pressure of exams. What happened to that?

Eamonn O'Kane:
Indeed he could well ask. The introduction of what are known as the A/S levels - which came in two years ago - that was intended to broaden the A level curriculum because many people maintained that British youngsters concentrated on a too narrow curriculum and they specialised too early. The idea was that the youngster would broaden their horizons and would study subjects on a broader basis.

But the fact of the matter is that it has placed tremendous pressure on youngsters who in previous years - in the lower sixth - would have been engaging in the sort of activities that your viewer described - and now will find themselves studying subjects and indeed in many cases actually going on to study those same subjects in the A2 year. In fact, I think the idea of broadening the curriculum for these youngsters - which is a good idea - I am afraid has been undermined by the pressure of the examination system. Youngsters are simply concentrating on those subjects which they can do well in - and who can blame them?

Manisha Tank:
Well it seems it's not just the youngsters that are disgruntled, so are the teachers - and I'm sure you've been hearing lots of comments. One here from Anonymous in the UK: I teach in a comprehensive school and in my opinion we spend so time testing and examining, we don't have enough time to teach properly.

Eamonn O'Kane:
Well, I'm sorry that anonymous didn't put her name to that message because it's one I hear from thousands of teachers who are only too willing and able to give me their names. And it is true. I think that our pupils are probably the most tested pupils in the western world. The number of tests that children do right from the age of seven right up until they are 18 or 19 years old, is tremendous and goes well beyond what they have in the rest of western Europe.

I do think that the time has come for the Government to take a long cool hard look at the examination system and particularly now that the Government again is, quite rightly, suggesting that the good bulk of youngsters should stay on in some form of education until 19 years old. If that is the case and it's something I would welcome, then I do think we've got to replace, for example, the GCSE - because it's no longer a terminal examination - that is an examination that most youngsters sit at the end of the schooling -but is one that they will now sit as they go through their education and I think we need to look at what its point and purpose is now.

Manisha Tank:
There's always this great debate about how we should conduct education in the first place. We had a very interesting text message in from Martin Jackson who is a teacher in Torquay saying: You don't fatten the pig by constantly weighing it. Education is about learning and not testing.

Continuing with a similar theme, Adam in the UK asks: If the Government expects us to believe that it is sensible to make kids sit endless exams, then it is up to them to show us the evidence that it works. Where is the evidence?

Eamonn O'Kane:
Well, it's a very debatable point and the other metaphor is - you don't keep pulling up the plant to see how it's growing - which is another variation on that theme.

It is true that the amount of testing is inordinate. On the other hand, I suppose it is important also to measure the progress which youngsters are making. I don't think any teacher would seriously argue that you shouldn't have some form of check on progress - after all, parents will want that as much as anything else. But I think that the degree of testing that we now inflict upon youngsters in this country is, as I said before, I think it is over the top. It's leading to an over-pressured pupils which often then has its impact on their behaviour in schools which of course can become something of a problem for the teachers who are responsible for them.

So I repeat, I do think it's something that we need to look at carefully. We've got to have balance on the one hand - keep a check on the progress that youngsters are making and indeed comparing that with youngsters in comparable schools. But at the same time we've got to try and allow a bit of room for development and a bit of room for teachers to teach and not always be confined by a very tight curriculum and testing regime.

Manisha Tank:
Laura, UK: If the exams are that easy, then why do some people still fail?

Eamonn O'Kane:
It's an old story - it's an old tune. I think right from the beginning of state education, at the beginning of the last century, the cry has gone up constantly that the more people who go through the system, the more means worse. The same thing was said when the universities were expanding way back in the 1960s and it's wrong.The fact is we've moved beyond a system where only a small elite group of young people go through the examination system. We're now opening up the whole system to all youngsters.

Frankly, I have looked at examination papers that youngsters sit now for A level and I've compared them with A level papers that I sat way back in the 1960s and I don't think there's any tremendous difference in them. In fact, I've nothing but admiration for the youngsters and their teachers who sit these examinations. I really wish that many of people who carp persistently about the standards would really think seriously about what they are saying and the impact that that has on the youngsters who are doing these examinations - working hard, achieving good results and then they're then met with this barrage of criticism that their results aren't really worth the paper that they're written on.

Manisha Tank:
We have just had the results of a vote we've been conducting while we've been on air. Our online viewers have been telling us what they think about the GCSEs and A levels. Well, 47% of you, it seems, are saying that you think they are too easy.

Eamonn, what do you make of that? How do you actually change the public's perception?

Eamonn O'Kane:
Well, have the public sat these examinations? It's all very well everybody saying they think the GCSEs are easier. I really do challenge people who make these assertions as to whether or not they've actually sat the examinations. It is important also to remember that GCSEs are second tiers - in others words, there is a basic tier, an immediate tier and a higher tier and they do challenge, I think, quite adequately the different levels of ability of most youngsters.

But what do we want to do? Do we want to produce, as it were, a regime in which the great majority fails? . So that they're all feel, that's nice, they're a small group that go through and they're the elite and the rest of us are failures. It just seems to me to convey totally the wrong message. I cannot believe that the education system in this country should be geared to producing a majority of failures and that's why I think this persistent criticism of GCSEs and A levels is entirely misplaced.

Manisha Tank:
Sarah, UK asks: Coursework is open to abuse. What parent would refuse to help their child when so much rides on getting the right grades?

With that there are lots of people watching on the internet right now. There has been a lot of criticism saying students are pulling information from the internet and copying and pasting it into their coursework.

Eamonn O'Kane:
This is a controversial area, I fully concede. Although it is worth pointing out that the actual proportion of the marks that have been given on coursework over the years has been reduced to a much smaller extent than it was previously.

Yes, there is a danger and I don't think anybody should baulk at pointing that out, where youngsters perhaps are given help in comparison to other youngsters who perhaps come from households where that help isn't readily available. On the other hand, it is true that coursework does also provide the opportunity for youngsters who, faced with a two-and-half hour examination, and being judged solely on that - many people would point out that that perhaps is an unfair way of judging exactly their competence and their ability to understand a subject.

So there is a balance in it and I do think we have to be conscious of the potential for plagiarism that you pointed out that can be gained from the internet. But at the same time, a good examination system and a good examiner will detect that. Teachers are quite well used to recognising work that suddenly becomes of a very, very superior type from that which was previously produced by the youngster.

Manisha Tank:
We have to finish there and it's always good to end on a controversial note which leaves the debate open. Eamonn O'Kane, General Secretary of the NASUWT, thank you.