27th February 2019 9:00
By Blue Tutors
The president of the Royal Society, Sir Venki Ramakrishnan, has said that we need a huge overhaul of our A Level system to address the needs of a changing society. Reported on the BBC, Sir Venki says that the government’s recent changes to A Levels (more emphasis on final exams and longer less spoon fed questions) don’t go nearly far enough, and we are persisting with qualifications which have hardly changed since their inception in 1951.
Sir Venki believes that A Levels should be preparing young people for their future jobs, but the narrow syllabuses don’t do that. He says that we will need employees with skills in quickly growing industries such as artificial intelligence, whilst some students are preparing for jobs which will be lost altogether.
The 21st century will bring different challenges to our workforce, and it’s suggested that students should continue to study science and maths until they are 18 to adequately prepare. Sir Venki believes that this should be alongside English, History and other arts subjects, as well as languages and technical skills producing more well rounded school leavers.
The comments are supported by the National Education Union who have just claimed that GCSEs have become pointless and should be scraped. However, the government insist that A Levels are still world class qualifications, and believe that their plan to offer more choice with T-Levels and vocational courses will produce the results we all want.