9th September 2015 1:00
By Blue Tutors
A report has suggested that schools should be made to pay a fine for every student who fails to achieve C grades in GCSE Maths and English. The government has introduced a compulsory resit policy, whereby students who do not achieve C grades in core subjects must resit the exams at FE colleges if necessary. The report produced by the think tank Policy Exchange has concluded that schools should be made to bear the cost of the retakes. According to the think tank, schools should be charged a “resit levy” in order to cover the cost of transferring students to an FE college, and to compensate for their failure to ensure that students achieved at least a C grade in core subjects.
Report authors said that schools have a responsibility to ensure that their students leave with basic levels of numeracy and literacy, and argued that the cost of the resits shouldn’t be borne by the FE colleges who receive the students after school. Concerns regarding how FE colleges will deal with the burden of the extra students are widespread. Many of the students who fail to achieve the passing ‘C’ grade will have got below a D in their original GCSE, meaning that they will require very intensive tutoring in college in order to raise their standard. That, plus the sheer numbers of extra students heading to FE colleges for retakes is putting a strain on the colleges, which have been subject to severe government cuts in spending.
The proposal that schools be fined for students who have to resit has been met with alarm by schools, who are also struggling financially as a result of education cuts. The National Union of Teachers has described the plans as “robbing Peter to pay Paul”, pointing out that neither schools nor FE colleges have the means to provide properly for struggling students. They urged the government to fund schools and colleges properly, and the recruit more teachers to support struggling students. The Association of Colleges has issued a similar statement, saying that the refusal of the government to ring fence funding for 16 to 19 year old education is a grave cause for concern.