Employers mistake lowest GCSE grade for the best mark

EMPLOYERS are confused by the new GCSE grading system with a quarter believing the bottom grade is the best mark, a survey has found.

Nearly one in four employers incorrectly thought that 1 was the top grade, according to a report published by the exams watchdog.

Ofqual commissioned a Yougov survey of 2,974 employers, universities, school leaders, parents, teachers and members of the general public to ask about perceptions of GCSES and A-levels. Twenty three per cent of employers wrongly believed that 1 was the top grade, compared with 64 per cent who correctly stated that 9 was.

Eight per cent of universities also thought that 1 was the top grade, along with 6 per cent of head teachers. The proportion rose to 16 per cent among parents. Last summer, students received their marks for GCSES for the first time under the new numerical system which uses grades 1 to 9, rather than from A* to G.

The numerical grades were designed by Michael Gove, the former education secretary, as part of a package of reforms to toughen up syllabuses and to counter grade inflation at the top end, since A and A* are split between seven, eight and nine.

Michelle Meadows, the deputy chief regulator at Ofqual, said: “We recognise the need to continue to engage with stakeholders as reforms bed in.

“To that end, we have launched new films and other resources related to GCSE science ahead of this summer’s exam series and will be doing more to explain other aspects of the reform programme in the months ahead.”

Seamus Nevin, the head of employment and skills policy at the Institute of Directors, said many employers would only discover that the GCSES have changed once they begin receiving CVS from pupils. “They might think, ‘What is this gibberish and what does it mean and how has it changed from previous grading systems?’” he has said.

“If the employer is time-poor and resource-constrained then they can, on occasions, be quite keen to get through as many [CVS] as possible. So if they have a CV that they don’t understand then they might opt for the ones that they do.”