Private schools shun new GCSES to give pupils edge

A refusal to switch to new exams system could help more students get top grades, it is claimed

PRIVATE schools are giving pupils an advantage by refusing to embrace the new GCSE marking system, it has been claimed.

Thousands of students will receive their grades next Thursday, many of whom are the first cohort to take the new “tougher” GCSE courses.

However, a large number of independent schools have declined to switch over to the reformed qualifications, which use numerical grades 1-9.

They have opted to continue with international GCSES – known as IGCSES – which use A* to G.

State schools are forced into the new system because the Department for Education has removed IGCSES from league tables. “Independent schools are likely to have stayed with the IGCSE partly because it is familiar and partly because they are cautious about the more rigorous, more demanding GCSE,” said Bill Watkin, the chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association.

“There is likely to be a greater proportion of the cohort doing IGCSE that get the top grade than would get the top grade in the reformed GCSE.”

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

Mr Watkin added: “There is a flip side: if you get the top grade in a more difficult qualification, you can show you have achieved particularly well.

“But the question is, will colleges, employers and universities understand enough the difference between the reformed GCSE and the IGCSE in terms of the level of difficulty?”

Ofqual commissioned a survey this year which showed that employers are confused by the new GCSE grading system.

Bernadette John, a director at the Good Schools Guide, said the biggest concern among parents is the “perceived unfairness” that their children will “somehow be disadvantaged” by having harder exams.

“A lot of the private schools have stuck with the IGCSE, taking the view that they don’t want to be the guinea pigs,” she said.

“That causes a bit of resentment as there is the idea that IGCSES are easier. Private schools have the luxury of time to sit back and see how it goes.”

Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the Independent Schools Council, defended head teachers’ decisions not to switch over to the reformed GCSES.

“It is fair and sensible for their pupils not to adopt the new GCSES this year if they are happy with IGCSES,” he said.

A spokesman for Cambridge Assessments, which provides IGCSES, insisted the qualifications are the “same standard” as the reformed GCSES.