Express GCSE

The Express: GCSE

Summary:

Ofqual wants to replace the GCSE by “I Levels”. It means that the course work will be abolished in all core exams except science and all end of course exams will be done in the summer, apart from English and mats exams. If students want to re-sit the exams, they’ll have to wait for a year.  A new grade 8 is going to replace A* as the highest grade. They want to make exams harder while providing differentiation between the most able pupils. The National Union of Teachers think that the proposed changes do not reflect “real life”. They think it is not the best way forward.  This will ignore different learning styles and narrow the skills that can be tested through terminal examinations.

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My opinion:

I think it is great that education is always developing, but I think this happens too often.  When I look at the things that happen at my own school or all the things they want to change in the Netherlands… I think it is useless and sometimes not feasible. People, who have never worked in a school, often make the decisions. They don’t know a thing about, how everything goes in class. They don’t have a clue about what is possible and what isn’t. The ideas are great but the implementation shows it doesn’t work. I wonder if just changing the name of the grading schedule will make things better.

And I cannot see the word “differentiation”. Yes, it is important to adapt to the ability of a pupil, but if you have 30 pupils in your classroom, and 5 of them have ADHD, 5 have autism and another 5 have a very bad youth because of their parents. How can you differentiate? You just have 2 hands and 1 pair of eyes. The idea is great, but you can’t implement this on your own.

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Bibliografie

Bennet, O. (2013, June 4). Express News UK. Opgeroepen op June 4, 2013, van Express.co.uk: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/404971/GCSEs-could-be-replaced-by-I-Levels-with-coursework-abolished