Two-tier warning over O-levels plan (From South Wales Argus)
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Two-tier warning over O-levels plan
RADICAL government proposals to axe GCSEs and bring back O-levels risk "labelling teenagers as failures", school leaders have warned.
The national curriculum in English secondary schools is set to be abolished, it has been reported
There are fears the move, which Wales education minister Leighton Andrews has said would not apply here, would lead to a two-tier system which writes off part of the population, according to headteachers' unions.
The plans, which would see the national curriculum in secondary schools scrapped, had come as a "complete bombshell", they said.
Shadow schools minister Kevin Brennan has been granted an urgent question in the Commons on the replacement of GCSEs, the scrapping of the secondary national curriculum, and the reform of exam boards.
Under the proposals, contained in documents leaked to the Daily Mail, pupils would begin studying "explicitly harder" exams in traditional academic subjects such as English, maths, history, modern languages and the sciences from 2014, with exams taken for the first time in 2016.
Papers would be set by a single exam board in order to provide a "gold standard" test across England, the documents said. It would mean that schoolchildren currently in Year 8, aged 12 and 13, would be the last to take GCSEs.
Less-able pupils will sit simpler examinations similar to the old CSEs. They will include simpler tests in English and maths in order to provide them with "worthwhile" qualifications.
Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), suggested that an O-level system was inappropriate for today's education system.
"O-levels were an examination that existed for a small proportion of the population, that was part of the preparation for university," he said. "It was an academic qualification, and at the time when O-levels existed vast numbers of young people left either with no qualifications or ones that employers regarded as inferior. The last thing we want to do, when we are ambitious for our education service, is to create a two-tier system."
He added: "It does risk labelling teenagers as failures. In recent years we have done a lot to motivate children, to improve attendance, reduced disengagement and truancy, and this is key to the very real improvements that have taken place in schools."
It is understood that ministers believe that teenagers have been encouraged to think that a D, E, F or G grade at GCSE is a pass, when it is seen by many as a fail.
Comments (3)
21/06/12
Gareth says...
The problem with "everyone gets a clap and a medal" education starts when pupils enter the real world to find that second place means failure. You get nothing for being second best in a job interview, or coming second in a tender for contract.
If you are not good at something, then the education system should be there to identify this and help develop other things that you may be good at. The lad (male gender used for clarity only) that can't play footy very well shouldn't get a medal or PC place in the team, he should be told the truth and helped to find something he can excel at; something that puts him at the top of the pile. Chess, painting, golf, whatever.
And when he gets a standing ovation on awards day for picking up a medal in something that he was honestly won with hard work and determination, it will mean far more than any patronising pat-on-the-back medal for merely taking part in something.
We are all good at something and that's what the education system should be there to discover and nurture. Homogenous "well done to everyone for trying" is not going to cut it if want the next generation to help us out of the mess we've got ourselves into.
They need to come out of schooling with the aptitude and attitude to be the best in something. ANYTHING!
21/06/12
paul m roberts says...
You need to come into the 21st century and stop pretending that what happens in England is automatically happening in Wales. - (lazy reporting)
21/06/12
CM1 says...
Paul, it does have a bearing on Wales. We effectively operate as a single country on many levels economically and if England develops a superior or poorer education system than Wales then that has a direct bearing on Wales.