GCSE exams to be replaced by EBacc

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Parent Category: Education & Training

Category: The ClassRoom

Created on Monday, 17 September 2012 00:00

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GCSE exams to be replaced by EBacc

Education secretary Michael Gove reveals new system will be a revamped English Baccalaureate qualification starting in 2017

Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent

The biggest shakeup of the exam system for English secondary schools in a generation was unveiled as ministers said GCSEs would be scrapped in favour of a revamped English Baccalaureate qualification from 2017.

As education experts raised concerns that less academically gifted pupils could be left behind by the new "EBacc", the education secretary, Michael Gove, confirmed that a sizeable proportion of students would leave school with no qualifications. Students who find the new exams "difficult" will be given a "detailed record of their achievement" by their schools, which will be forwarded to further education colleges where they will be encouraged to sit the exams later, aged 17 or 18.

The confirmation that a large number of students will leave school without a qualification is likely to intensify criticism. The National Union of Teachers said ministers were creating a two-tier system.

Gove and the Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, visited an academy in west London to set the seal on the reforms, which will see GCSEs phased out in two stages:

• From the autumn of 2015, pupils will be taught for the new EBacc in English, maths and science. These will cover seven papers: English language, English literature, maths pure and applied (with an additional maths option), chemistry, physics and biology.

The new exam will be sat for the first time in these subjects in the summer of 2017. There will be no coursework in English and maths as modules are scrapped on the grounds that they encourage what Gove described as "bite-size learning and spoon-feeding". There will be some coursework in science to take account of the importance of laboratory work.

• From 2016, pupils will be taught for the new EBacc in history, geography and languages. Pupils will sit the exams in the summer of 2018. There will be no coursework for history. Field trips will still count in geography and there will be flexibility on oral exams for languages.

Gove told MPs: "Critical to reform is ending an exam system that has narrowed the curriculum, forced idealistic professionals to teach to the test and encouraged heads to offer children the softest possible options. It is time for the race to the bottom to end. It is time to tackle grade inflation and dumbing down. It is time to raise aspirations and restore rigour to our examinations."

Gove will move quickly to embed the reforms to ensure that it would be all but impossible for Labour to reverse the reforms if it wins the May 2015 general elections. As a first step, single subject exam boards will be appointed by the end of next year by Gove, who will have the final say after recommendations from the exams watchdog Ofqual.

Gove said: "Critically we will end the competition between exam boards which has led to a race to the bottom with different boards offering easier courses or assistance to teachers in a corrupt effort to massage up pass rates. We will invite exam boards to offer wholly new qualifications in the core subject areas - English, maths, the sciences, history, geography and languages."

The joint appearance by Gove and Clegg at Burlington Danes Academy was designed to show that the two coalition partners had overcome their differences after a row in June. Clegg accused Gove of planning to throw children on to the "scrapheap" after the Daily Mail reported that the education secretary wanted to replace GCSEs with a two-tier system based on the old O-levels and CSEs.

Clegg insisted the new system would not be two tier and that less-gifted children would not be left behind. "There are many people who think that if you want to make the system more rigorous, you have to leave some behind, but I disagree. I think you can have greater rigour in the exam system, that's a good thing, but also ensure we can cater for all children, the same way the present exam does."

Gove told MPs that there would be an "enhanced" system for pupils who struggle with the new exams. But he confirmed that many would leave school without qualifications. "We expect that everyone who now sits a GCSE should sit this new qualification. But of course there will be some students who will find it difficult to sit these exams, just as there are students who do not sit GCSEs today.

"We will make special, indeed enhanced, provision, for these students with their schools required to produce a detailed record of their achievement in each curriculum area at 16, which will help them make progress subsequently – and we anticipate some will secure EBacc certificates at the age of 17 or 18."

Lord Baker, the former Conservative education secretary, raised concerns. "It's vital that schools and colleges provide education which develops practical skills and personal qualities as well as subject knowledge," he said.

Stephen Twigg, shadow education secretary, said the reforms risked a return to the 1980s. "We need to face the challenges of the 21st century," he said. "We on this side will not support changes that only work for some children."

The reforms will also mark the demise of GCSE league tables. Gove is also consulting on replacing the "floor standard" system, in which schools that fall below a particular level are deemed to have failed. A new system would take account of a wider variety of factors in asses.

Source: The Guardian UK

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