In the late Eighties, in an advertisement for BT (British Telecom) Beattie, played by  Maureen Lipman, had a phone call from her grandson staying that he had failed his exams, passing only Pottery and Sociology.

“You got an –ology?” she cried, “He gets an –ology and he says he’s failed. You get an –ology you’re a scientist.”

It is telling that even the advertising people thought this was a joke, and knew their audience would too. Times have changed. This was before the dumbing down of A-levels, grade inflation and the downward adjustment of university standards had really got going. These days many students who come out with top grades and degrees would fail an old-style O-level, even in a soft subject like Sociology, let alone a hard subject like Greek or Physics.

I have posted many times on this site about the dumbing down of our A-levels, and our universities to match, and also about the destruction of the grammar schools, which I believe is a principal cause of this dumbing down. A-level grades have never been higher, yet university lecturers complain that students cannot construct a sentence. Why is this?

A-levels are getting easier and they are marked more generously, with top grades given away like sweets. Another reason for the discrepancy between paper qualifications and student calibre is the type of A-level taken. There has been a proliferation of soft subjects – most things ending in “–ology” and everything ending in “Studies”. Even in my day soft subjects were available, but these were studied in addition to proper subjects. For example, a candidate might take Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Physics and Computer Studies, or Latin, Greek, History and Art. And there was no such thing as General Science A-level, which cannot be anything other than a watered-down, easy version of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (the only –ology I respect).

Those of us who had done proper A-levels knew the difference between Latin and Greek, on the one hand, and “Classical Studies” on the other.

Ancient History was, and is, a tough A-level. It has never been popular, or widely offered, especially in the state sector. Now, as I said in this post, it may be about to become – well – ancient history, despite recent renewed interest in the subject. Boris Johnson is up in arms:

If ancient history disappeared as an A-level it would be "another battle in the general dumbing-down of Britain." He said: "Once again, a tough, rewarding, crunchy subject is poised to give way to the softer option."

The decision, he said, was perverse because the number of students taking the subject had risen by 300% since 2000. He said: "Look at the immense interest in the Persian wars, and the success of the new film about Leonidas and the Spartans. "It is demented that the authorities should now be cutting off the supply, just when the demand is rising. The Spartans were fighting to save their civilisation - and so are we."

Perhaps this madness can be stopped. Here, on the Prime Minister’s website, is an online petition. Any British citizens or residents can sign it. It only takes a minute, and sometimes – not always, but sometimes – the Government takes notice of these petitions.

This is a minority interest. Unlike the road-pricing petition, it is unlikely to attract thousands of signatures.

However, the petition has been up only a few days, with nearly a year to go and has 572 signatures already. In fact about ten people signed it in the ten minutes it took to type this.

Sign it now if you can, and if you care.