Reality TV show takes pupil back to 50s

UK TV bosses are to test whether educational standards have plummeted by sending today’s teenagers back to an era of spam fritters, cross-country runs and the three Rs.

Channel 4 will turn back the clock to the 1950s for a group of 30 16-year-olds who will recreate the experience of a state boarding school.

Programme makers say the series will look at whether modern teaching methods have killed off competitive spirit or created a fairer system.

Pupils who have just sat their GCSEs will be seen enduring a month of schooling and ultimately sitting O-Levels in maths, English and French.

They will be supervised by a headmaster and two housemasters – each a working teacher – as the era is recreated in vivid detail.

Vigorous runs in vests and shorts, dips in outdoor pools and a strict disciplinary regime will be part of the experience.

And reflecting the times, pupils will be fed such delights as spam fritters, corned beef salad and stewed prunes.

Those taking part in the series – provisionally titled The 3Rs – are drawn from the top 20% of GCSE entrants, mirroring the proportion of children who sat public exams in the 1950s.

And in the ultimate test of whether standards have changed, the pupils will receive both their O-Level and GCSE results on the same day.

The TV experiment has been supported by leading exam board the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) and leading educationalists.

It is being made by TV company Twenty Twenty which made the award-winning ITV1 show Lad’s Army, which recreated National Service.

Series producer Simon Rockell, himself a former teacher, said: “This experiment will help answer some of the questions that have exercised the minds of academics over the last 50 years.

“Has political correctness in modern teaching methods not only allowed apostrophes and split infinitives to run wild, but squeezed out the competitive spirit in sport and academia for fear of hurting the feelings of a molly-coddled generation?

“Or will the experience merely strengthen our attachment to the modern system where everyone, not just the elite, gets prepared for, and takes, public examinations?”

Channel 4’s commissioning editor for history, Ralph Lee, said: “This project really brings history to life. The series touches on an experience that everyone can relate to and we expect it to generate huge debate in homes across the country.”