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Definitely ‘News’ ? Handwriting in exams is too ‘tiring’ for students, headmaster warns“

(103 Posts)
Lincslass Mon 13-Dec-21 19:12:46

Poor little babies, how on earth are they going to cope in the big wide world. They’ll have a shock that’s for sure. This is absolutely ridiculous. Would rather schools concentrated on getting correct spellings, still I suppose spellcheck will be used, or is that why he is suggesting it. That’s cheating in my book.

MiniMoon Mon 13-Dec-21 19:11:21

It's been done in Finland. Its probably a sign of the times. These days keyboard skills are more important than handwriting. I read this article when it was first published and thought that it wouldn't be long before other countries followed suit.
www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/31/finnish-schools-phase-out-handwriting-classes-keyboard-skills-finland

Urmstongran Mon 13-Dec-21 19:03:49

A-level and GCSE exams should be typed because long periods of handwriting can be “tiring” for youngsters, the headteacher of a top boarding school has said.

Keith Metcalfe, headmaster at Malvern College, in Worcestershire, has called on exam boards to drop compulsory handwritten exams for GCSEs and A-levels in favour of typed papers, in order “to improve fairness and accessibility for all”.

At first I thought ‘what?’ Then remembered writing all the Christmas cards last week.

What are your thoughts on this? Are they just mollycoddled youngsters or has technology rendered swathes of handwritten pages a thing of the past?