Education split by vocational tests row

David Holland, the headmaster of the independent Hill House School, in Doncaster praised the performance of his pupils yesterday as he highlighted the need to ensure students are only taught subjects which will benefit them beyond school.

He said: “We have been determined to ensure our pupils take the more demanding subjects and have not chased results by using easy subjects – that does pupils a disservice later on.”

Almost half of the GCSE exams sat at his school, which opens a sixth-form next month, resulted in either an A* or an A grade.

His comments came amid complaints that league table reforms which are aimed at getting schools to focus on a set of core traditional academic subjects could see vocational alternatives to GCSE no longer given the same recognition.

Education Secretary Michael Gove has created the English Baccalaureate (E-Bacc) to measure school’s performance in league tables.

It is awarded to every GCSE pupil who achieves an A* to C pass in English, maths, two sciences, a modern language and either history or geography.

The Government is also reforming league tables to reduce the number of alternative qualifications which can count toward a school’s GCSE total.

However Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, claimed that vocational qualifications are as important as traditional academic subjects.

She said: “For all young people to be able to reach their full potential, we need to rid ourselves of this idea that an education system familiar to those who attended school towards the middle of the last century is the only way forward.

“Despite what the Government may claim, many vocational qualifications and courses are of good quality and are equally important as, for instance, the E-Bacc much favoured by the Secretary of State for Education.”

Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), said: “The distinction between the academic and the vocational can be equally arbitrary.

“Vocational qualifications are not an emergency exit for unruly students; they need be no less demanding than traditional academic subjects.”

A think-tank has warned that the E-Bacc could disadvantage the poorest students,

Civitas said yesterday that the pressure of league tables could lead to schools discouraging students from taking E-bacc subjects if they are not expected to get a C or above in them.

Civitas’s director of education Anastasia de Waal said: “A student judged to be unlikely to get a C risks both failing to add to the league tables and being a potential distraction for teachers from the E-Bacc goal.”

The think-tank said that because of the link between lower exam performance and free school meal eligibility, the students liable to be excluded from E-Bacc subjects are “disproportionately likely to be poorer”.