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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/26/the-guardian-view-on-gcses-there-is-more-to-school-than-exams
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| The Guardian view on GCSEs: there is more to school than exams | The Guardian view on GCSEs: there is more to school than exams |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Last week more than half a million children in England, Wales and Northern Ireland opened their GCSE results; this week those who don’t yet have a firm plan for their 16-18 education will work out what to do next. Results are never good news for everyone. Disappointments should not be ignored. But the success of schools and of pupils in the face of new and harder exams deserves applause. | Last week more than half a million children in England, Wales and Northern Ireland opened their GCSE results; this week those who don’t yet have a firm plan for their 16-18 education will work out what to do next. Results are never good news for everyone. Disappointments should not be ignored. But the success of schools and of pupils in the face of new and harder exams deserves applause. |
| Big changes such as these should mean big improvements. Following reforms causing stress and disruption, we should feel better equipped as a nation to face the future than we were before. Questions or shortcomings in the previous dispensation should have been answered; innovations introduced. But while the greater difficulty of the new qualifications means many children will have a stronger 11-16 education (even if the more traditional content is not to all tastes) and some subjects have been brought up to date, the new GCSEs are also a disappointment. | Big changes such as these should mean big improvements. Following reforms causing stress and disruption, we should feel better equipped as a nation to face the future than we were before. Questions or shortcomings in the previous dispensation should have been answered; innovations introduced. But while the greater difficulty of the new qualifications means many children will have a stronger 11-16 education (even if the more traditional content is not to all tastes) and some subjects have been brought up to date, the new GCSEs are also a disappointment. |
| Chief among the negatives is the switch away from coursework and back to exams, with the result that 16-year-olds must now take up to 30 tests in just a few weeks. Reports concerning the adverse impact on mental health and wellbeing are extremely concerning, while the emphasis on memorisation is unimaginative, and practical subjects such as drama make far less sense when assessed in this way. Grade inflation was the key rationale for the upheaval, and any impact here has yet to register (marks this year having been awarded in line with previous years to avoid penalising the guinea-pig cohort). But the truth is that while markers in future may tighten the screws a bit, the political pressure for improvement is generally too strong to resist. | Chief among the negatives is the switch away from coursework and back to exams, with the result that 16-year-olds must now take up to 30 tests in just a few weeks. Reports concerning the adverse impact on mental health and wellbeing are extremely concerning, while the emphasis on memorisation is unimaginative, and practical subjects such as drama make far less sense when assessed in this way. Grade inflation was the key rationale for the upheaval, and any impact here has yet to register (marks this year having been awarded in line with previous years to avoid penalising the guinea-pig cohort). But the truth is that while markers in future may tighten the screws a bit, the political pressure for improvement is generally too strong to resist. |
| In light of this, the new grades look like a cosmetic exercise, bringing initial confusion over the pass mark but little benefit. The replacement with three grades (7, 8 and 9) of the previous A and A* amounts to the splitting of hairs. It remains to be seen whether Wales and Northern Ireland will follow England’s lead and abandon As, Bs and Cs, or whether private schools will abandon the alternative IGCSEs they took up in the 2010s and rejoin the fold. For now, the big picture is one of fragmentation, and the losers are the lower achievers who find themselves shut out from a greater proportion of the curriculum, as well as those children with special educational needs whose abilities are often more accurately measured by means other than exams. | In light of this, the new grades look like a cosmetic exercise, bringing initial confusion over the pass mark but little benefit. The replacement with three grades (7, 8 and 9) of the previous A and A* amounts to the splitting of hairs. It remains to be seen whether Wales and Northern Ireland will follow England’s lead and abandon As, Bs and Cs, or whether private schools will abandon the alternative IGCSEs they took up in the 2010s and rejoin the fold. For now, the big picture is one of fragmentation, and the losers are the lower achievers who find themselves shut out from a greater proportion of the curriculum, as well as those children with special educational needs whose abilities are often more accurately measured by means other than exams. |
| What makes the new regime all the more misguided is that such thorough testing at 16 is an international anomaly. Most countries examine pupils when school is completed. This doesn’t mean the 14-16 curriculum doesn’t matter or should not be changed. But rather than upping the ante on the tests at the end of this phase, it would make more sense to move gradually towards a single set of exams and school leaving certificate – just as we have moved towards a single school leaving age – and to find other ways than GCSE performance tables to monitor and improve what is going on in schools. These could include an altered role for Ofsted, an expansion of peer review and sharing of best practice (currently disincentivised by relentless competition), and a greater role for teachers in curriculum development. For ministers, the priorities should be teacher recruitment, further education and training. | What makes the new regime all the more misguided is that such thorough testing at 16 is an international anomaly. Most countries examine pupils when school is completed. This doesn’t mean the 14-16 curriculum doesn’t matter or should not be changed. But rather than upping the ante on the tests at the end of this phase, it would make more sense to move gradually towards a single set of exams and school leaving certificate – just as we have moved towards a single school leaving age – and to find other ways than GCSE performance tables to monitor and improve what is going on in schools. These could include an altered role for Ofsted, an expansion of peer review and sharing of best practice (currently disincentivised by relentless competition), and a greater role for teachers in curriculum development. For ministers, the priorities should be teacher recruitment, further education and training. |
| This is not to denigrate what has been achieved, or to call for a reversal, but to champion a mission for schools that goes beyond what can be measured in As, Es, or 7s. They aren’t exam factories yet. | This is not to denigrate what has been achieved, or to call for a reversal, but to champion a mission for schools that goes beyond what can be measured in As, Es, or 7s. They aren’t exam factories yet. |
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