Two tier education conspiracy

Plans are afoot here in the UK to turn back the clock on the examination system for secondary education at age sixteen to the position last seen in the 1980's. For the last 25 years there has been one exam that all students take, the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) with grades from A* down to U. The GCSE was introduced to replace a system whereby children were streamed based on ability with higher achievers taking O levels and lower ability students taking CSE exams. Educationalists had long argued that this system was creating a generation of students who were immediately at a disadvantage simply as a consequence of the examinations they had been directed to take. Undoubtedly there have been issues that have arisen with the newer GCSE exams, particularly as they have been modified over time. When first introduced they were specifically designed to challenge students of all abilities whilst offering the best chance of maximising performance. Each subject was marked based on coursework completed over two years followed by a final examination. The combined marks representing the grade achieved. This was modified to reduce the amount of coursework required and to change the format of the examination from a mix of short answers and essay answers to a multiple choice format.

The result of this is that OFSTED the UK government inspector of schools produced a report criticising the changes made to GCSE exams and highlighting a reduction in difficulty in them over time. From the OFSTED report it was clear that changes needed to be made to the system, but the response of the education Secretary Michael Gove MP seems somewhat strange. Rather than review and modify a system which offers a level playing field to students he has decided to revert to the previous two tier system. Under this system children will be assessed throughout their school career and at age thirteen will be streamed to either higher or lower examinations based on their performance. This returns us to the position found 25 years ago that was deemed unacceptable. It also devalues those students who have recently been awarded or will shortly receive GCSE passes. Essentially, what Mr Gove has done is to suggest that GCSEs were a failed experiment, that they were unfit for purpose, thereby devaluing them beyond retrieval. The way in this has been leaked to the press renders opposition to it moot, since the existing exams will be seen as highly questionable.

This whole process highlights a fundamental problem at the root of education, not just in the UK, but in the US and Europe as well. Rather than attempt to understand the reasons that GCSE's have been made easier and easier, and why more and more students are struggling with basic Mathematics and English there is a move to scrap it and move on. Once again decisions are being made based on false assumptions and unsubstantiated evidence that children are born with a range of intellectual abilities and that some children are more suited to vocational type qualifications than to academic ones. This has consistently failed to be proved, and it seems far more likely that differences in childrens ability are a function of environment and an inability of an underfunded education system to provide equal opportunity to all children given the differing needs in terms of teaching styles and methods of engagement. Would it not make more sense to start from a premise that all children are capable of achieving educational success and trying to understand why this is not happening? The reasons will be found to be many and various but surely this will be a better start point than constantly trying to tweak the end results, the examinations, to hide the real problem.