Letter: GSCEs do need reform (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Letter: GSCEs do need reform

2:58pm Tuesday 26th June 2012 in Opinion

Re ‘Two Tier exam divisive’ (LT, June 23) Mr Kuchartshuk produces only successes it seems?

We should bottle what he has got.

But most of the doctors, nurses etc that we have now came through the O level system so clearly his point is either poorly made or poorly edited.

Mr Dawson – talking of retrograde, I remember Fearns when it was a good school.

It was a secondary modern when at its best and certainly seems to have been going backwards since the 70s with parents preferring to send their children from Bacup to Haslingden rather than to Fearns, where they used to battle for a place.

Fact – we have a multi-tier system now, not two-tier.

Streaming in schools, some exam boards easier than others, some pupils only able to sit a foundation GCSE which means they can only attain a C at best, some pupils able to resit papers and some pupils being taught by lower calibre teachers.

Do heads really think that a pupil leaving with a Grade F in English will leave school feeling a sense of achievement?

The GCSE doesn’t stretch the able students enough evidenced by the volume of A and A* and it is too tough for many evidenced by the high per cent that fail to get any meaningful grades.

Richard Taylor, Blackburn

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