There's a hole in my bucket

"There's a hole in my bucket," said the new minister for Education in 1951.
"Well fix it," said the Prime Minister.
"With what shall I fix it, dear Prime Minister?"
"With some new exams, dear Secretary of State."
"OK.  I'll call them O levels."

"There's a hole in my bucket," he repeated a few years later when people complained that just having a pass or fail wasn't enough.
"Well fix it then,"
"With what shall I fix it dear Prime Minister?"
"With grades dear Secretary of State."

"There's a hole in my bucket," said the the new Labour Education Secretary in the mid sixties. "We can't have an education system that is just for the top 20% of the country.

"Then fix it then."

"With what shall I fix it, dear Prime Minister?"

"How about some new exams?"

"Good idea. I'll call them CSEs."

"There's a hole in my bucket," complained the Education Minister in 1975. "The grading system for O levels is confusing."

"Well fix it then."

"With what shall I fix it, dear Prime Minister?"

"With some new exams, Secretary of State?"

"No, we've done that. I think I'll just make all exam boards use the same standardised norm-referenced, letter based marking scheme."

"There's a hole in my bucket," said the Education Minister in 1985. "It doesn't seem fair that only the top 10% of pupils taking an exam  can get an A no matter how many questions they get right."

"Then fix it."

So he did.

"There's a hole in my bucket, he complained a few years later. "It still doesn't seem fair that not everyone is allowed to take the exams that Universities like."

"Well fix it then."

"With what shall I fix it dear Prime Minister?"

"With some new exams, dear Secretary of State

"Good idea, Prime Minister. I'll call them GCSEs."

"There's a hole in my bucket. Everyone knows too many children are passing these wretched exams. They look too easy."

"Then fix it."

"With what shall I fix it, dear Prime Minister."

"With some new exams, dear Secretary of State."

"That might be a bit drastic. Let's just make them harder."

"There's still a hole in my bucket and I've tried everything. I've changed the curriculum, blamed the teachers but the little nuggets are still making it look too easy and they don't die at 45 like they do in China."

"Well fix it then."

"With what shall I fix it, dear Prime Minister?"

"With new exams, dear Secretary of State."

"I took O levels, I liked O levels. I might call them O levels."

"I'm not sure, we've had those before."

"I'll keep the name a surprise then. We could grade them in numbers, I don't suppose anyone will remember that we had that before."

"We could but maybe we've been singing the song wrong."

"You're right, Prime Minister. Eliza finally fixed the bucket with a bucket. We need a bucket."

"Why not have three?"

"Jolly good idea, Prime Minister. A big bucket for maths and English, a medium bucket for subjects that clever children, like mine will take, such as Science and Latin and a teeny tiny bucket for those silly artsy-fartsy subjects."

"Genius!"

How many holes could there be in three buckets?