No Plans to Scrap GCSEs, Education Secretary says

Addressing an education union conference, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said that the GCSE exams will be here ‘for an awful lot longer.’ 

The decision to scrap exams again this summer due to the disruption from the pandemic has prompted discussions over whether the exam format should be overhauled, or scrapped entirely, in the future.

Mr Williamson described the pandemic as the ‘single greatest disruption to our education system since the Second World War’. 

He said that GCSEs will not be scrapped anytime soon, despite growing calls to reform the assessments that are taken nationally by secondary school students. Many question the relevance of these qualifications, especially now that young people are legally required to stay in education or training until they are 18.

This was addressed by former Tory Education Secretary Lord Kenneth Baker, who argued that there is no need for assessments that are formal, such as GCSEs, at 16 when the law requires them to stay in education until 18. 

The UK is the only country in Europe to test pupils at 16 as well as 18, which adds more ammunition to those who are calling for the system to be altered.

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Wondering how many UKers realise that pretty much every other country in the world doesn’t have an equivalent to GCSEs… #scrapGCSEs

— Zoe Rose (@z_rose) August 23, 2012

A campaign called Rethinking Assessment is calling for reform. It is supported by a broad coalition of schools, universities, academies, employers and influencers. 

Thoughts surrounding scrapping GCSEs have been in circulation since before the pandemic. In 2019, Robert Halfon, chairman of the Education Select Committee, said GCSEs for 16-year-olds have become ‘pointless’. Mr Halfon and others described GCSEs, in a letter entitled ‘Education System is not fit for purpose”, as ‘pointless’, preferring a baccalaureate-style qualification instead.

“I would rather that all the concentration should be on the final exam before you leave (school). Get rid of GCSEs, which seem to be pointless. Instead, there should be some kind of assessment to show how far you’re progressing.”

Mr Williamson, however, said it was ‘really important’ to have exams and full assessments, such as those provided by the GCSE structure, to help pupils with the transition to different colleges and schools for the final two years of their education. 

Exams were cancelled again in January when schools moved online for most pupils for the second time since the beginning of the pandemic. Results would be based on teacher-assessed grades instead. These grades were, Mr Williamson assured, based on the trust of the teachers as opposed to the Government-produced algorithms that proved controversial and unfair last year. 

A leading headteacher said in a previous speech that the coronavirus pandemic had exposed the ‘fragility of our qualification system’ as well as ‘its reliance on endless pen-and-paper exams in exam halls.’ 

In addition, last month Jane Prescott, headteacher of Portsmouth High School, said she was concerned about the impact “over-testing” has on ‘young people’s state of mind’ and their engagement with education. 

Mr Williamson said he is willing to look at ‘how we can improve and continue to adapt GCSEs’, and admitted that the £1.7 billion that the government has allotted to help children catch up on missed learning ‘only scratches the surface’.

For now, it seems that GCSEs, which were introduced in 1988, are here to stay.

Amelia Cutting

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