News
Robert Halfon, Chair of the Education Select Committee, makes a radical proposal today, in advocating that GCSEs and A levels are scrapped.
Robert Halfon, Chair of the Education Select Committee, makes a radical proposal today, in advocating that GCSEs and A levels are scrapped.
I wonder how this feels to teachers and students who were setting out this morning to redouble their efforts at final preparations for these high-stakes exams?
However, on closer reflection, most of us can identify the subject(s) we wish we’d been able to take but weren’t due to inflexible option groups or limited number of choices. For me, it was needlework. If I’d been able to do that, maybe I’d be giving Stella McCartney a run for her money by now?
But will today’s new ideas create anything different? They certainly chime with Ofsted’s recent calls for a broader curriculum – and they aim to take the sting out of the high accountability testing system which has been developed over the last 30-40 years. They will be greeted enthusiastically by supporters of the International Baccalaureate, preferred mainly in Independent Schools. However, with its broader range of subjects and prioritised character strands, this qualification has been shown to be costly, both financially and in terms of teacher training. Only 143 of the 32,000 schools in the UK currently offer it.
What doesn’t help is the sense that such radical change is in the wind. Not so long ago the DfE promised that, to address teacher workload pressures, there would be no new policy changes – that teachers would be given time and allowed to let changes become embedded so that they could reflect on and refine their practice again, year on year.
Mr Halfon should be careful in publishing ideas about such fundamental overhauls to the system – after all most teachers have only ever experienced the current GCSE and A level system. Future changes should be evidence-based, feasible and risk assessed – given the current shortage of teachers, budgetary shortfalls and curriculum changes we need to trust the DfE, Secretary of State and Education Select Committee to put their money where their mouth is and act in all children’s and teachers’ best interests.