GCSEs have been scrapped in England in favour of the new EBACC qualification to be introduced in 2015. But the future of the qualification remains unclear in Wales.

NATALIE CROCKETT asks teachers in Gwent for their views. School might have been out for the summer but you wouldn’t have known it for all the talk about GCSEs.

The exams found themselves the topic of much debate once again over repeated claims that they do not test children enough.

Then came the drama over the regrading of English language papers, which saw 2,386 pupils across Wales receive raised grades, but none in England where the possibility of regrading was dismissed.

The matter came to a head two weeks ago when Westminster education minister Michael Gove announced that GCSEs would be scrapped in England, to be replaced by a single end-of-course exam known as the English Baccalaureate Certificate or EBACC.

Pupils in England who started secondary school this year will be the first to sit the new exams in 2017 and only one exam board will deliver each subject, he said.

While they have been formally scrapped across the border, teachers and pupils in Wales must await the outcome of Wales’ Review of 14-19 Qualifications, due in November, to see what will be done here.

So far Wales’ education minister Leighton Andrews is remaining tight-lipped on the matter. He would only say he believed that scrapping the exams in England was a “backward step”.

He has previously ruled out a return to O-Level style exams.

Graeme Harkness, founding director of the new three to 16 Ebbw Fawr Learning Community set to open at The Works in Ebbw Vale within the next year, said that GCSE exams tested students in a variety of ways.

He said “We believe that education should prepare young adults for the future, and that future is increasingly reliant on the ability to work together, as well as independently, and acquire skills that can be applied across a range of disciplines.

“GCSEs and BTECs have broadened the curriculum and demanded greater levels of understanding from students, making them less reliant on factual recall.

“We are in favour of any examination system which enables young adults to acquire the breadth of experience they need in a fast-changing and technologically rich world.”

Karyn Keane, head teacher at Newport High School, Bettws, said that this is a crucial time for education in Wales.

She said: “At Newport High we value both the GCSE and vocational choices available to learners and believe combining these with the Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification allows all students the opportunity to succeed.

“Different tiers of entry at GCSE provide our most able students with appropriate levels of challenge.

“Our students work really hard to succeed in their GCSE exams and it is important they receive the recognition for their efforts.”

Big review of 14-19 qualifications

The Wales review of 14–19 qualifications is looking at which qualifications have most relevance and value, whether existing qualifications are of the right quality, if they achieve their purpose and whether any qualifications should be stopped.

It will also explore how the system could be simplified and better understood, whether it would be beneficial to have fewer qualifications or awarding bodies and what the implications would be if Wales went its own way from England.

Findings will be out at the end of November and no decisions will be taken about changes to GCSEs