Yorkshire head calls for ‘E-Bac’ system to be ditched

Andrew Chubb, the principal at the Archbishop Sentamu Academy in Hull, was giving evidence to an MPs inquiry yesterday into the new GCSE performance measure used by the Government for the first time this year.

Pupils qualify for an English Baccalaureate if they achieve at least six A* to C GCSE grades which include English, maths, two sciences, a humanity and a language.

Mr Chubb is at the forefront of a campaign to replace it with a new system or qualification.

He has warned the new baccalaureate is only a “narrow performance measure” which will undermine subjects not included in it. Speaking at the Commons Education Select Committee’s hearing, Mr Chubb said: “What we need is a proper national debate about what we want to achieve through education.

“We need to go back to first principles and ask: What do our students need for themselves? What is needed to engage them? What does our society need and what does our economy need? We then build a baccalaureate that is worthy of the title.”

In his school’s written evidence to the committee, Mr Chubb warned that the English Baccalaureate – known as the E-bac – restricts pupil choice.

Archbishop Sentamu Academy is a Church of England school where religious studies is compulsory. Religious studies is not, however, one of the subjects which is recognised by the E-bac which means pupils at the school would have to study three humanity subjects in order to be able to achieve the new standard.

Mr Chubb has also questioned why only GCSEs have been included in the new performance measures. His submission said: “We agree with the Secretary of State that some vocational qualifications have been over-valued, and that this situation needs to be addressed.

“However, there are many rigorous vocational qualifications that students value, and find engaging, and we believe that these should also be included.”

Almost 85 per cent of pupils across the country did not achieve the grades necessary for the E-Bac in last summer’s GCSEs. Teaching unions and head teachers criticised the Government for measuring secondary schools on their E-bac results in this year’s league tables when the qualification did not exist at the time the exams were actually being sat.