3rd July 2012 9:00
By Blue Tutors
It was interesting last week to read about Michael Gove’s plans to revamp the year 11 qualifications in England, and even more interesting to see the reactions to the proposal. Obviously it’s not official yet, but it’s definitely in keeping with many of Gove’s ideas, and has seemed fairly inevitable ever since he was appointed as the Education secretary.
I’m actually very impressed so far with the system that has been proposed, which is strange, because my politics definitely don’t match Gove’s party’s. I think it’s uncontroversial to say that GCSEs have become easier, and they definitely don’t allow the top candidates to distinguish themselves. A harder set of exams, more similar to the old O’ levels would be a breath of fresh air as far as I’m concerned. I would love to see a maths paper for 16 year olds which actually requires them to think!
The major criticism of the new system seems to be that it will create elitism, and take us back 50 years to a situation where students are labelled as ‘non-academic’ from an early age, and are consigned to follow a path towards manual labour and therefore reduce social mobility. I suppose this all depends on the way that the system is implemented; I would hope that 16 year olds will have the opportunity to sit both proposed exams if they would like to. The dirty little secret, that everyone seems to avoid revealing though, is that education is elitist! It’s a competition and the best students get the best university places and the best or most well paid jobs. There’s no getting away from that. All I think we need to ensure is that we’re giving everyone the best opportunity possible to succeed, rather than worrying about telling someone at 16 that he/she isn’t a future Nobel prize winner.