I'm glad that my kids and grandchildren have escaped this boneheaded and elitist tinkering but with the first great-grandchild on the way, I fear for its future.

The Skin

Nick Clegg has revealed a radical overhaul for England’s education system, with all future qualifications being awarded purely by chance.

Keen to put the controversy of variation between exam boards behind him, the deputy prime minister has launched a range of small, perforated exam certificates with ‘scratch and see’ grades.

“This should be a relief to parents who have struggled to get their children into good schools”, insisted Clegg.

“It no longer matters how good the teachers are, or if your kids are a bit thick.”

Read more: http://newsthump.com/2012/09/17/gcses-to-be-replaced-with-scratch-cards/#ixzz26iwM0ZvK

The biggest shakeup of the exam system for English secondary schools in a generation was unveiled as ministers said GCSEs would be scrapped in favour of a revamped English Baccalaureate qualification from 2017.

As education experts raised concerns that less academically gifted pupils could be left behind by the new "EBacc", the education secretary, Michael Gove, confirmed that a sizeable proportion of students would leave school with no qualifications. Students who find the new exams "difficult" will be given a "detailed record of their achievement" by their schools, which will be forwarded to further education colleges where they will be encouraged to sit the exams later, aged 17 or 18.

The confirmation that a large number of students will leave school without a qualification is likely to intensify criticism. The National Union of Teachers said ministers were creating a two-tier system.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/sep/17/gcse-exams-replaced-ebacc-michael-gove

I suppose the first question about this latest bout of educational gerrymandering is why go the trouble of creating an English Baccalaureate when there is already an International Baccalaureate in existence which would do the job just as well. Moreover even if the current GCSE system is not fit for purpose this is a hopelessly inadequate replacement which will leave most pupils without qualifications. At then end of the day it is going to go down like a cup of cold sick with most parents. Still the good news is that along with Osborne 's useless economic policy and IDS doomed Universal Credit this latest pile of shite spewing from the arse of this incontinent government should see them well and truly crapped out by the next General Election

is put school children back to how it was pre-1988 as if nothing had ever changed. It will also help sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to university place - degrees in media studies indeed.

who always got the short straw in the English educational system in the past unlike in some other countries where vocational, practical and mechanical skills are recognised and more valued. Gove has just completely ignored their needs. Many are likely to leave school with no qualifications at all under his proposals.

that employers don't recognise.

Admittedly I've not needed to recruit apprentices for over 30 years but can recall we wouldn't have taken anyone on who couldn't find the numerical equivalents of cross + roads = danger and calculate a square root long hand. We needed those capable of demonstrating an ability to think - not thickos.

With the current situation I' ve seen what happens with the children of younger friends. They take their coursework home, search the subject on a computer, cut and paste, and hand the work in - big fucking deal. Aside from that any idiot can use a calculator - bring back log tables.

Last edited Mon Sep 17, 2012, 08:26 PM - Edit history (1)

which is perhaps why they have a vibrant industrial sector and run a trade surplus while the UK always seems to have a current account deficit and relies on the ponzi financial chicanery of the City of London, Quantative Easing and property bubbles to create simulated growth. The problems inherent in the UK educational system existed long before the advent of GCSEs and are a reflection of a cultural malaise going back decades. Britain has always been good at producing a few top performers in academic fields but very poor at nurturing a general populace with the skills to compete in the modern industrial world

Secondly, what happens to those who are not so academic, especially now that they're going to be required to stay on till 18?

I agree that a lot of people took almost-worthless degrees because the last government was obsessed with getting 50% of young people into university for its own sake, and imitated its predecessors in downgrading and reducing vocational courses and apprenticeships. But that was not caused by GCSEs. Nor is there any sign that this government is likely to increase the provision or range of vocational courses!

is for more effort to be used in schools to find it what the preferences of the children are and what they actually like. That would help with the non academics. My grandson is non academic but he's about to do A Level music, drama plus another which escapes me and he also won a tennis scholarship - tennis he is good at.

New Labour were bad enough about always fixing things that weren't broken, and breaking things that were fixed; but the Conservatives (ironic term for them in this context!) are much worse.

And yes, if they must change the system, why not at least change it to the existing International Baccalaureate? There are already a number of schools in the UK that provide it - I know someone who took it at her state FE college in 1988. It seems to work quite well; and at any rate, it's established and internationally recognized, so why invent something new just to give Gove something to do?

http://www.ibo.org/myp/

http://www.ibo.org/myp/assessment/index.cfm

I think a major motivation for Gove is to get rid of continuous assessment. I think there's general Tory feeling of "real students do exams. I did exams. Never did me a bit of harm. Let's you see how they perform under pressure."

I did O levels, and the only subject which had significant continuous assessment was English Lit - half of it was a combination of continuous assessment on several books plus an extended essay on our own choice of subject. I learnt a lot more about literature doing that than the other half, which was a exam on one Shakespeare play, in excruciating detail, where the ability to memorise quotes helped. So I am sympathetic to courses that involve continuous assessment, in principle.

Having said that, it was, of course, pre-internet, and our situation (a boarding school, in a village with only the school-run bookshop, and no-one from previous years having done the course) made bending the rules, or cheating, pretty difficult. We really did do all the work ourselves - no help from parents, and it was pretty rare to find a 'Coles Notes'-type book on what you had to produce within the timeframe you had. It seems to me that it must take some skill to set and mark continuous assessment with so many opportunities for plagiarism these days. It may be that Gove and his backers feel the same.

If we adopted it Gove and most of his cronies would be out of a job. In addition it does not rely purely on death by exam as it also allows for continuous assessment so it does not fit the educational tale the Tories want to peddle. It is also used widely by those beastly, untrustworthy Europeans so can not be allowed in our fair land (well not for state school kids)

The changes will lead to an overhaul of the module system as course work is replaced by exams. Fewer students will achieve the higher grades as the government seeks to raise academic standards. It is expected that around 10% of pupils will be awarded a grade 1. Under the current system around a third of pupils are awarded A or A* grades. There will also be only one exam board. Ministers believe exam boards have in recent years competed for business by making it easier for pupils to obtain higher grades.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/sep/17/gcse-exams-replaced-ebacc-history-pass-rates

but that process was in part a direct result of both Labour and Conservative governments policy of setting educational targets for individual schools plus the rather malign influence of private exam boards such as Edexcel competing for trade by offering more 'friendly' marking environments than their rivals. This weakness was a fault of the endless tinkering with the examination system rather than an inherent fault in the concept of GCSEs themselves. Moreover, the proposed EBacc while eliminating some of the excesses of the existing system is not necessarily going to fix the problems in English education since its sole concern is protecting the integrity of the academic exam system (ie being able to identify the most suitable university candidates) rather than raising the general educational standards for all children.

Some reforms that look quite good, some that look not so good, but I can't help but think that Gove is trying to do much too much, much too fast.

If the government wants to abolish GCSE's, then that is a massive change that should be put to the public in the Tories manifesto at the next general election, not rushed through parliament right now.

I actually tend to agree with Kenneth Baker that the whole concept of exams at 16 needs to be looked at now that most children stay in school until the age of 18. Instead of children opting for certain O levels subjects at 14 and then limiting themselves to a few A levels at 16 it might be better if a longer term assessment of their needs was made with a single final set of exams at age 18. Children spend too much time being forced through hoops so that politicians and schools can reach short term targets rather than concentrating on their long term education

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/michael-goves-gcse-reforms-dont-go-far-enough-says-