Era of ‘dumbed down’ exams is over declares education chief

The Government also plans to stop exam boards competing to deliver qualifications in the same subject which Michael Gove claimed has led to a “race to the bottom”.

The Education Secretary told MPs yesterday the current system saw exam boards competing to offer easier courses and assistance to teachers in a “corrupt effort to massage up pass rates”.

Instead only one exam board will be allowed to offer the English Baccalaureate Certificate in each subject.

Mr Gove said abolishing 
GCSEs would bring to an end years of “drift, decline and dumbing down” in England’s exam system as he warned the qualification had been designed for a different age and a different world.

If the reforms are approved, schools will start teaching the new qualification in English, maths and sciences in 2015, with the first exams being sat in 2017. This means pupils who started secondary school this month would be the first year group to sit them.

Other subjects, including history, geography and languages, will follow, with Mr Gove announcing the entire suite of GCSEs could be replaced.

Pupils who are not ready to sit the English Baccalaureate Certificate at 16 years old could instead sit them when they are 17 or 18 as the school leaving age increases.

Mr Gove, who announced the reforms yesterday with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, said GCSE credibility had been undermined by allowing pupils to resit modules and carry out increased coursework and claimed the system had led to a “narrowing of the curriculum” with schools teaching to the test and choosing the softest options possible to deliver exam success.

“We know that record increases in performance at GCSE have not been matched by the same level of improvements in learning – while pass rates have soared we have fallen down international education league tables,” he said.

“We know that employers and academics have become less confident in the worth of GCSE passes – because they fear students lack the skills for the modern workplace and the knowledge for advanced study. . . And we know, most recently and most tellingly, that changes made to GCSEs under the last Government – specifically the introduction of modules and the expansion of coursework, controlled assessment, in schools – further undermined the credibility of exams, leaving young people without the rigorous education they deserved.”

Liberal Democrat leader Mr Clegg had objected to leaked plans earlier this summer which suggested the coalition was going to replace GCSEs with a two-tier O-level style system where some students would have sat lesser CSE-style exams.

Ahead of yesterday’s announcement, the Sheffield Hallam MP said: “There are many people who think that if you want to make the system more rigorous, you have to leave some behind, but I disagree. I think you can have greater rigour in the exam system, that’s a good thing, but also ensure we can cater for all children, the same way the present exam does.

“You can have a system where children who need to be stretched are stretched, but where children who are not as able in this or that subject are still able to take part in the exams.”

Speaking in the House, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg asked Mr Gove whether the reforms were a “Trojan horse” for a two-tier system, and warned the opposition would not back change on that basis.

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, claimed the new 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, she added.