從伊頓到牛津金錢鋪就的升學路英語美文

Eton Master Attacks "Buying" into Oxbridge

在英國，為了讓孩子今後更容易地升入名牌大學，許多家長都不惜支付高額學費讓孩子就讀名牌私立學校。但這種用金錢鋪就升學路的方式未必就能實現家長的名牌大學夢，因為大學在招生時可能會對私立學校的學生提出更高的要求。

All universities should require significantly higher grades from applicants from leading independent schools because of the quality of education they receive, a senior teacher at Eton said yesterday.

據英國《每日電訊報》3月25日報道，日前，英國著名私立中學伊頓公學的高級教師戴維·湯恩德提出，所有大學在招生時，都應該對畢業於名牌私立學校的學生的分數要求更高，因為他們接受了更高質量的教學。

在伊頓執教37年的化學教師湯恩德表示，如果父母花費大量金錢讓孩子進入私立學校讀書，是為了他們日後升入名牌大學而不是為了開發他們的能力和潛質的話，很可能就會得不償失。他説：“有人認為，要想進入牛津、劍橋這樣的名校，學生畢業的中學似乎比他們自身的實力更重要。我想這種觀點是完全錯誤的。從伊頓畢業的學生應該以更高的分數進入大學，因為在他們在伊頓受到了其他學生沒有的高質量教育。社會公正性要求高等院校在招收學生時必須考慮學生所畢業的學校背景。”

現年58歲的湯恩德承認，他的'建議肯定會引起許多家長的不滿。但引起私立學校學生家長不滿的還遠不止湯恩德的建議。近日，英國政府擴大了高等院校對公立學校畢業生的招生比例。這一決定使得眾多私立學校都在擔心他們的學生是否還能夠大量的升入名牌大學。

英國許所大學表示，國家高等教育基金委員會已向他們下達了招收更多公立學校畢業生的指使。本月，倫敦經濟學院也表示，他們已將40個招生名額專門用於招收公立學校的學生。同時，英國高等院校入學服務中心(一個專門受理英國大學申請的機構，每個學生都必須經過該機構來申請大學)也更改了大學申請書的形式，新申請書增加了申請者填寫畢業學校和社會背景的要求。

為此，湯恩德表示，高等院校留出專門名額招收公立學校的學生是不公平的，學生進入大學的惟一條件應該是他們的潛質，而不是畢業學校背景及其它。報道説，伊頓公學去年對該校11歲的入學申請者進行了心理學考試，而這些考試題通常都是針對大學三年級的學生設立的。伊頓公學表示，心理測試題可以充分看出學生的綜合能力和天賦。

All universities should require significantly higher grades from applicants from leading independent schools because of the quality of education they receive, a senior teacher at Eton said yesterday.

It would be unjust if parents were buying entry to elite universities for their children rather than the opportunity for their children to reach their academic potential, he said.

"I would feel it totally wrong if an independent school were getting a higher proportion of pupils into Oxford and Cambridge than their real ability merits," said David Townend.

Mr Townend, 58, an assistant master, admitted that his remarks would be unpopular with some parents. They would also be controversial at a time when the heads of independent schools feared that their students could miss out as universities strive to meet the Government"s targets for increasing the number of state school entrants.

But Mr Townend, who has taught chemistry at the Berkshire school for 37 years, said social justice demanded that universities follow Bristol"s example of taking school background into account when sending out their offers of places.

He proposed a motion which was overwhelmingly passed by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers at its annual conference in Torquay committing it to campaign for entry to higher education to be on potential alone. The union voted to encourage universities to make allowance in the selection procedures for a variety of educational provision experienced by individual candidates at school or college.

"It must be right that pupils from Eton should be required to achieve significantly higher grades than someone who has not had the benefits we at Eton can provide," Mr Townend said.

Universities have been given "benchmark" targets by the Higher Education Funding Council for increasing the proportion of state educated pupils they admit.

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service is also changing the application form to include questions indicating a candidate"s school and social background.

This month the London School of Economics admitted that it sets aside 40 places which are available only to applicants from low-achieving state schools.

Mr Townend told the conference of teachers from state and independent schools that he would not want to see universities set quotas for state school pupils, which would be unfair.

However, research had shown that teachers in the independent sector tended to overestimate the grades their pupils would achieve at the end of their courses while those in the state sector underestimated them.

It would be much fairer for pupils to apply to university only after they had received their results, argued Mr Townend, who said that he believed passionately in social justice.

"I emphatically state that entry to university should be on potential alone.

"Oxbridge asks for three As and many good universities from the Russell group ask for 3 Bs from Eton.

"I see no reason why they should not offer much lower grades from schools without such good results."

Last year Eton introduced psychometric tests designed by Durham University for all applicants at the age of 11 and they had been used to measure the potential of junior scholars.