19th June 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
This week Michael Gove has announced the latest plans for GCSE reform, which will see modules and retakes removed in favour of end-of-year exams. For GCSE English, the reforms include removing the speaking and listening requirement, a plan which head teachers, and former education secretary David Blunkett feel will be highly detrimental. The speaking and listening element allowed students an opportunity to research a topic independently and present information to the class. Students were also given an opportunity to become involved in debates, and respond to those giving presentations.
One of the tenants of GCSE English policy over the years has been that it is of vital importance that students learn how to speak in a group, make persuasive arguments and learn how to respond verbally during debates and discussions. These are necessary skills for university and the work place, where students will often be required to work as a team, and involve themselves in debate and discussion. Gove has often expressed a desire for the English system to become more in line with the International Baccalaureate, although this apparently does not extend to the speaking and listening element. Under the International Baccalaureate, students have several group oral exams which include class discussions. Although the Baccalaureate has written exams only at the end of the course, it also allows for written course work and speaking and listening requirements which are supervised by teachers.
Sadly, the reason stated for removing the speaking and listening requirement is that teachers cannot be trusted to mark this element. After changing the GCSE grade boundaries without consultation last summer, Ofqual said that it was necessary in order to compensate for over generous marking by teachers. This debacle has been well documented, and legal cases are still pending against Ofqual, which state that there is little evidence of grade inflation, and that regardless of school’s activities, students should not have had grade boundaries changed without warning between January and summer exams. The thing that is most clear about this mess is that as a result, hundreds of students’ academic futures have been put in jeopardy, and a crucial part of the curriculum has been axed for the sole reason that the government has created a system in which they do not or cannot trust teachers to provide the marks they expect to see. The system is indeed in need of reform, but removing the speaking and listening element is a giant step in the wrong direction.