Dumbing down outcry as one in five GCSE pupils thinks the Sun orbits the Earth

One in five pupils who took the basic science GCSE this year believes the Sun orbits the Earth, it can be revealed today.

And one in ten of those taking the same exam did not know that a rechargeable battery could be used more than once.

The level of ignorance, despite the ‘laughably easy’ questions, was exposed in the 2008

Examiners’ Report by exam board Edexcel, which has been seen by the Tories.
It sheds new light on what MPs say are falling standards and led to a condemnation of the ‘national scandal’ of dumbing down in schools.

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Conservative schools spokesman Michael Gove, who saw the Edexcel report, also released sample questions from the same board’s new GCSE science tests, which were introduced this year. He said they were proof that exams are now much easier than 20 or 30 years ago.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Among the questions proposed was one that asked if a nurse should stay clear of X-rays ‘to avoid melting her mobile phone’.

Mr Gove said: ‘It’s not as though these questions are rigorous tests of scientific knowledge. One exam board asks if we look at the stars through telescopes or microscopes.’

He added: ‘There is a desperate need to assert the importance of rigour and excellence in education if we are to avert further decline, but almost every step the Government takes is in the opposite direction.’