Exams crackdown set to hit region’s schools

Just 70 alternative qualifications will count towards schools’ GCSE performances in future – a cut from more than 3,000 under the current system.

Ministers have also stopped equivalent exams being worth more than one GCSE pass.

Previously some courses were classed as being worth four A* to C grades at GCSE and helped schools to meet the Government’s target of pupils getting five good grades including English and maths.

Schools with fewer than 35 per cent of pupils achieving this are classed as below the floor target and risk intervention or closure.

Hazel Danson, national executive member for the National Union of Teachers said: “I think removing so many equivalent courses schools can use will lead to an increase in the number of schools which miss the target.

“But we will still have a situation where schools are choosing qualifications based on hitting their league tables targets rather than looking at what is in the best interests of the young person.”

However a spokesman for the Campaign for Real Education welcomed the move, which he said would stop schools putting young people into qualifications simply to boost their league table standings and would encourage pupils to return to the “core academic subjects”.