GCSEs 2022: Scrap mandatory maths and English resits and offer job-focused courses instead, exam board says
Apple News – March 21, 2022
Lord Blunkett, the former Labour Education Secretary, said: ‘While GCSEs work for the majority, others are unable to reach the standard needed and require an alternative’
Teens who fail their GCSEs in maths and English should be offered alternative qualifications rather than being forced to endlessly resit the papers, one of England’s biggest exam boards has said.
Currently, about 100,000 students – or one in three GCSE candidates – fail to make the grade in English and maths at 16, with those who get below a grade 4 required to retake the papers until they get a pass or turn 18.
Around two thirds of this group do not hit the mark upon resitting, with some young people retaking as many as nine times.
In a new report on the future of the assessment system, Pearson – the company which runs the Edexcel exam board – has called for the policy of retakes to be overhauled and for alternative qualifications to be offered to students who fail in the subjects. Lord Blunkett, the former Labour Education Secretary who sat on the expert panel for the report, said: “We need to make sure every person in England has the opportunity to achieve their full potential, so we cannot sit back and have 100,000 plus young people denied the chance to succeed each year, solely to preserve the dominance of any one qualification.
“While GCSEs work for the majority, others are unable to reach the standard needed and require an alternative. It is wrong to suggest that these young people cannot progress, when it is our actions which are narrowing their options, denying them choice and putting barriers in the way of success.”
He added: “For every learner who can master trigonometry or craft a compelling essay on Great Expectations, we need others who understand the dimensions for a stable road bridge or can draft an email to drive forward a business project. Taking action to make sure everyone can meet their potential will benefit England as a whole.”
While some commentators have called for GCSEs to be scrapped altogether, Sharon Hague, the managing director of Pearson School Qualifications, told i that they still have a place as a “highly valued” and “versatile” qualification.
However, she said the resits policy left some students feeling “demoralised and disengaged right at the point where achieving these numeracy and literacy skills are really important”.
“There are some young people that just need a little bit more time, a little bit more teaching and learning and they can be successful,” she said. “But there’s also a group of people for whatever reason that have got to that point, they’ve not yet achieved the GCSE, they’re really struggling to meet that standard, and actually it becomes for them quite disengaging. It’s just human nature that if you continue to fail something it becomes harder and harder for you to motivate yourself and engage.”
Ms Hague said it would be possible to develop alternative qualifications “recognised at the same level” as GCSEs, but “more linked to the direction of travel” which students wish to take in the workplace.
For example, she said that students aspiring to a job in the construction industry could sit a course that would teach them about “using mathematics within that context”.
“If they could see that relevance to the path that they’re intending to take, that could be really motivating,” she said. “It could provide them with the skills that they’re actually going to need that the employers in that industry want.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We want every young person to benefit from a broad and balanced curriculum, which helps them to thrive and achieve their potential.
“We reformed and strengthened GCSEs from 2013 and they are in line with expected standards in countries with high performing education systems.”