BEHIND THE HEADLINES: Heads down for ‘more rigorous’ GCSE exams

Education reporter NATALIE CROCKETT asked parents, teachers and unions what they think. GCSEs look set to stay in Wales after a Welsh Government review recommended they are retained but must improve.

Recommendations following a 14-month investigation include keeping the qualification as the main level-one and level-two general qualification for 14- to 19- year-olds.

This means that if the proposals are eventually agreed by ministers, Wales will have a different system of qualifications from England, where they are set to be scrapped.

The report says A-levels should be retained as the main levelthree general qualification for 16- to 19-year-olds and recommends Wales introduces a more “rigorous”

model for the Welsh Baccalaureate. A single body called Qualifications Wales should be created, which would be responsible for the regulation of all non-degree-level qualifications, it says.

Deputy Minister for Skills Jeff Cuthbert said last week that he was excited by the opportunities outlined and said he intends to respond by the end of January.

Recommendations to strengthen the education system in Wales were welcomed by all political parties, who all maintain that after years of disappointing league tables the country needs a system that can be trusted, is recognised internationally and will restore people’s confidence.

The review comes after months of debate over whether or not the current system tests children enough.

The matter finally came to a head following this summer’s GCSE English exam scandal, which saw more than 2,000 Welsh students upgraded after Welsh Education Minister Leighton Andrews said they were marked too harshly.

But in England re-marking was dismissed and weeks later Westminster Education Minister Michael Gove announced that GCSEs would be replaced by a single end-of-course exam known as the English Baccalaureate certificate, or EBACC.

Wales’ latest review concludes that the time had come to develop a “high-quality, robust and distinctive”

national qualifications system, and recommends breaking away from other parts of the UK where it was in the interests of Wales. It says qualifications gained in Wales must be of a standard comparable with the rest of the UK and the best in the world, so that young people can aspire to study and work wherever is best for them.

A total of 42 recommendations were made.

The finer details include:

● Retaining and strengthening existing GCSEs, maintaining a mixture of coursework and exams – with at least 40 per cent of the assessment to be taken at the end of the course.

● Generally discouraging pupils from sitting GCSEs before Year 11 but continuing to allow exams and assessment in both January and June.

● Retaining the same A-levels as England and Northern Ireland where possible.

● Continuing to improve levels of literacy and numeracy and ensure accurate assessments of these skills are developed, which employers can rely upon.

● Creating a new regulatory body – Qualifications Wales – which would be responsible for approving and assuring the quality of qualifications and would in time develop and award most qualifications for 14 to 16 in Wales.

● Creating a revised and more rigorous Welsh Baccalaureate by 2015. This would include a new grading system at advanced level and scrapping the existing Essential Skills Qualification.

● Providing improved and more accessible information about qualifications to learners, parents and carers.

● Supporting learners in choosing qualifications that are right for them.

● Making sure all vocational qualifications are on a par with equivalent general qualifications.

 ‘Pupils can show their knowledge’

HEAD teacher Denise Richards, who is in her second year in charge at St Julian’s School, Newport, said GCSEs give students a chance to show what they know and what they can do, writes Emma Mackintosh.

The school has 1,620 pupils, 256 of whom are in Year 11 and about to sit GCSEs.

Mrs Richards said: “GCSEs give a good reflection of a student’s ability in a range of different situations, including exam-based, in controlled assessments (coursework written under exam conditions), and some form of practical activity.

“There are other qualifications out there and the Welsh Baccalaureate, for example, is really positive for the young people of Wales.

“It is difficult to comment because these are just recommendations at present,” she said.

“It is good because to make the report they have spoken to parents, students and all the relevant stakeholders, so that gives me confidence that it is a very informed judgement.

“Some of the other things about the Welsh Baccalaureate and GCSEs being combined, and changes to English and maths GCSEs to reflect recommendations from employers is also interesting.

“It is good that it’s about Wales and recommendations for our children and our learners,” she said.

“It will be interesting to see what happens in England and how a three-country system is going to work, because students do move around post-18.”

Factfile

GCSEs were introduced in the late 1980s, to replace the dual system of O-levels and CSEs, with the first GCSE exams taken in 1988.

Pass rates have gone up every year except for this one, leading many to claim the exams have got progressively easier over the years.

The changes in England, to be taught in 2015 and first sat in 2017, will see an end to modules and continual assessment, which are a key component of GCSE qualifications.

Cautious welcome from union

TEACHERS’ union the NASUWT said it cautiously welcomed the report and said recommendations to retain GCSEs and A-levels underlines that, despite claims to the contrary, they are valuable qualifications.

It said if the recommendations are taken forward the challenge for the Welsh Government would be to ensure the new qualifications structure commanded the currency and status necessary to support the life chances of learners.

Rex Phillips, NASUWT Wales organiser, said: “If the recommendations of the report are taken forward by the Welsh Government there will be much to be done to ensure that any changes are workload-impact assessed, but in general the report presents a measured approach to the future of qualifications in Wales.

“The retention of GCSE and A-levels will be welcomed by teachers, as will the ending of the essential skills element within the Welsh Baccalaureate that has been the cause of much concern to NASUWT members.

“The devil, of course, will be in the detail, but on balance it must be a case of so far, so good.”

‘Current system’s accurate and fairer’

ABERSYCHAN mum Bobbie Heaven, whose daughter, Katie, 15, will sit GCSEs next June, supported the need for a robust education system in Wales.

She said she was in favour of keeping GCSEs because she believes they test youngsters’ ability effectively through a mixture of coursework and exams.

She is against a move to a single end-of-year exams system like that proposed in England as she believes it does not always give a true reflection of pupils’ ability.

But she says she would be slightly concerned about whether different qualifications would be treated equally by universities and employers in different countries.

She said: “My concern would be will they [GCSEs] be valid elsewhere, would they be considered equal in other countries?

“I think they’ve got it right sticking with the GCSEs and making them more robust. They keep disrupting everything in education and they don’t give things a long enough run to see the total benefits.

“When I was young we just had one exam at the end of the year and everything depended on that. I think it’s better with GCSEs because there are so many children who would freak out about that. If it’s alldependent on one exam and you’re not good on that day it would not represent the child’s true ability – I think GCSEs are an improvement on that. The coursework is good, it’s better to look at how children are doing continually so you can see how they are improving.”

However, Mrs Heaven, 42, said she didn’t agree with all aspects of the current GCSE system, which sees many schools enter pupils in for exams earlier than Year 10 and 11.

She said that while it worked for some very able youngsters, some were not yet mature enough to sit the exams and often ended up resitting them anyway.