Plan to scrap GCSE's gets lukewarm reception in East Lancashire (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Plan to scrap GCSE's gets lukewarm reception in East Lancashire
6:21pm Monday 17th September 2012 in News
A SHAKE-UP of GCSEs with a single exam, fewer top grades and one board for each main subject has got a lukewarm reception from East Lancashire headteachers while unions have warned the moves will be a step backwards.
David Whyte, principal of Blackburn’s St Wilfrid’s Church of England Academy and Janet Walsh, head of Colne Primet High School, welcomed moving away from the “re-sit” culture of coursework-based qualifications but expressed concern that not all subjects were suitable for single exam assessment.
Brendan Loughran, principal of Darwen Aldridge Community Academy, said: “It’s high time we had a good look at how we assess our young people’s performance. Now we need a sensible consultation on all this.”
However Sam Ud-din, National Union of Teachers Lancashire secretary, said: “This is bad news. It is not just a step backwards, it is a step downwards.”
Under the plans announced yesterday, pupils who begin secondary school this year will be the first to take the revised exams in 2017.
The current system of assessing individual “modular “ units of a course will be replaced by a single three-hour final exam with one exam board for each major subject. It will be more difficult to get the highest A* and A grades.
Mr Whyte said: “A single exam board is a good idea. I am in favour of reducing the emphasis on modular and rolling assessment of coursework for some subjects where it has created a “resit culture” with some students. But not all subjects are suitable for a single test. Schools must not become exam factories and lose our role producing rounded individuals.”
Mrs Walsh said: “This is good in parts. A single exam board and less emphasis on complicated coursework assessment is good. We need to end the “resit” culture, but not return to the old O-level GCSE divide. We need to prepare our pupils for the world of work. We must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
Mike Damms, chief executive of the East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, said: “I am in favour of a single exam board to compare like with like and a more rigorous exam-based system but we need to measure the employability skills important to business.”
Comments(7)
Rimbus
says...
10:54pm Mon 17 Sep 12
Excluded again wrote:Write out 100 times 'I must not criticise Michael Gove's idiotic attempt to make a name for himself whilst taking secondary education back 20 years'.
I have been asked to do many things in nearly 30 years of working life.
One of the few things which I have not been asked to do is to sit in a room for three hours and write down all that I can remember on several vaguely connected subjects.
How this is meant to help prepare young people for the realities of the world of work is beyond me. Unless they are all going to become academics.
Completely agree with you Excluded again. Politicians need to stop meddling and understand that some children are more suited to a vocational type approach to their education rather than purely academic. This proposed policy will come back to haunt us at some stage in the future if it is followed through.
caballo
says...
7:00am Tue 18 Sep 12
Excluded again wrote:Have you ever been asked to make a hurried or instant decision though?
I have been asked to do many things in nearly 30 years of working life. One of the few things which I have not been asked to do is to sit in a room for three hours and write down all that I can remember on several vaguely connected subjects. How this is meant to help prepare young people for the realities of the world of work is beyond me. Unless they are all going to become academics.
In my 30 yrs of working life I've never had the luxury of being able to make a decision over several weeks/months, then be given that decision back and told which bits of it were not quite right so I could amend them, several times if need be.
Chris P Bacon
says...
8:57am Tue 18 Sep 12
sally786987
says...
5:16pm Tue 18 Sep 12
Chris P Bacon
says...
8:12pm Tue 18 Sep 12
Excluded again
says...
10:40pm Tue 18 Sep 12
caballo wrote:I frequently have to make quick decisions. Sometimes they are instant, but if I was given three hours, I would check as many facts as I could before coming to a decision.
Excluded again wrote:Have you ever been asked to make a hurried or instant decision though?
I have been asked to do many things in nearly 30 years of working life. One of the few things which I have not been asked to do is to sit in a room for three hours and write down all that I can remember on several vaguely connected subjects. How this is meant to help prepare young people for the realities of the world of work is beyond me. Unless they are all going to become academics.
In my 30 yrs of working life I've never had the luxury of being able to make a decision over several weeks/months, then be given that decision back and told which bits of it were not quite right so I could amend them, several times if need be.
I'm an employer. If one of my employees was faced with a problem and three hours to solve it: if they said I just did what I could remember and didn't check anything, they would at best be on a warning, most probably dismissed.
Excluded again says...
8:02pm Mon 17 Sep 12
One of the few things which I have not been asked to do is to sit in a room for three hours and write down all that I can remember on several vaguely connected subjects.
How this is meant to help prepare young people for the realities of the world of work is beyond me. Unless they are all going to become academics.