GCESs go as Gove and Clegg rewrite the rules on exams

The new qualification will scrap the retaking of “modules”, reduce reliance on coursework and bring back tough end-of-year exams.

Children of all abilities will take the EBacc and there will be only one exam board for each subject, in order to prevent competition between boards to deliver tests which are easier to pass.

Education Secretary Michael Gove and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said: “We need a new set of exams for students at the age of 16 - qualifications which are more rigorous and more stretching for the able, but which will ensure the majority of children can flourish and achieve their full potential.”

The announcement was made in a joint article in the Evening Standard several hours before Mr Gove was due to outline his plans in a statement to the House of Commons - something which is likely to anger MPs who believe that Parliament should be informed first.

Mr Gove and Mr Clegg wrote: “We believe that if we remove modules and reduce coursework, get rid of the factors that encourage teaching to the test and, above all, ensure there is just one exam board for each subject, we can restore faith in our exams and equip children for the challenges of the 21st century.”

Teaching of the new English, maths and science certificates will begin in September 2015, with the first pupils receiving EBacc rather than GCSE qualifications in 2017. Other subjects, including history, geography and languages, will follow.

Mr Gove and Mr Clegg said that the EBacc will become a “near-universal qualification” taken by almost all English schoolchildren. Where schools feel that pupils are unable to sit the exams at 16, some will be able to defer their EBaccs until 17 or 18.

Mr Gove and Mr Clegg clashed openly over the future of exams earlier this year, with Mr Clegg insisting he would not accept a return to the two-tier system of qualifications that pre-dated GCSEs, when the academically talented took O-levels and the rest sat CSEs.

It is understood that Mr Gove and Mr Clegg have worked closely together over the summer to find common ground.

In today’s article, they wrote that their reforms “have only been made possible because in this coalition we have been able to be more radical, combining the best ideas and building a consensus broader than either of us could have hoped to on our own”.

They took a swipe at opponents of the reforms, saying they aimed to “overcome those forces that have held our children back - the entrenched establishment voices who have become the enemies of promise”.

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said that today’s proposals were “entirely driven by political ideology rather than a genuine desire on the part of the coalition Government to reform the examination system in the best interests of children and young people”.

Mr Gove had embarked on a “cynical and wholly unjustifiable” attempt to discredit GCSEs, rather than celebrate the success of teachers and pupils in securing sustained improvements in pass levels, said Ms Keates.

She added: “A further deep concern is the plight of those young people set to take GCSEs in the next two years. They have now been told publicly that the exams for which they are working on are discredited and worthless.

“The actions of the Secretary of State in this regard are unacceptable and the lack of concern for the impact and motivation of young people and teachers working towards GCSEs is disgraceful.”

Martin Johnson, deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said: “A new exam certainly should not be designed on the back of a restaurant menu as a short-term political fix by ignorant ministers.

“This is an insult to the nation’s children who will have to live with the consequences if the crackpot ideas are implemented.

“Since young people will have to stay in education and training until they are 18, there is growing opinion that we no longer need external testing of 16-year-olds.”

Shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg said the proposals were “totally out-of-date” and risked “a return to a two-tier system which left thousands of children on the scrapheap at the age of 16”.

“Schools do need to change as all children stay on in education to 18 and we face up to the challenges of the 21st century,” said Mr Twigg. “We won’t achieve that with a return to the 1980s.”

Education charity the Edge Foundation, which is chaired by Conservative peer Lord Baker of Dorking, who was education secretary at the time of the introduction of the GCSE, warned that today’s reforms were “not enough”.

Lord Baker said: “It’s vital that schools and colleges provide education which develops practical skills and personal qualities as well as subject knowledge. This has to include opportunities to learn by doing.”

Mr Gove and Mr Clegg said the reforms will address concerns about “dumbing down” in English school exams.

“Almost everyone now accepts the problem of grade inflation and, year after year, the dumbing-down debate further chips away at confidence in these exams,” they wrote.

“Last year the Daily Telegraph revealed how exam boards compete to offer softer courses and easier questions, in a race to the bottom which has narrowed the curriculum, encouraged teaching to the test and sent all the wrong signals to our school leaders.

“We have failed to stretch the highest achievers and left lower achievers - still overwhelmingly those from the poorest backgrounds - floundering with grades that many employers consider meaningless.

“This year, thousands of ordinary students have suffered because the modular design of the English GCSE - linked to the amount of coursework in school - has undermined faith in grading and marking.”

They launched a consultation programme on the reforms as well as a consultation on a replacement for school league tables to develop “better ways of recognising schools that add value and help the poorest”.