Examine the facts

GCSE test for pupils and schools

THIS YEAR’S GCSE results should be about students, teachers and success stories like that of Ines Alves who was awarded a grade A in chemistry having sat the exam just hours after fleeing from the 13th floor of Grenfell Tower as the inferno took hold. Survivors of the Manchester bombing showed similar fortitude.

Yet these efforts are being overshadowed by confusion about the numerical grading system for English and maths, which will be applied to other subjects from next year. The head of skills at the Institute of Directors denounced the changes as “gibberish”. It was not a constructive comment. As a followup to The Yorkshire Post’s editorial on this very subject yesterday, the IoD and others should be working with Ministers to make sure employers understand the new scoring system so recruits are not denied opportunities due to the ignorance of others.

This newspaper has repeatedly said that education should be a partnership with business and vice-versa; schools need to be teaching pupils the skills that will enable them to prosper in a digital first economy and groups like the IoD should be helping to refine the curriculum, where appropriate, to ensure that Michael Gove’s well-intended reforms genuinely last a generation as more rigour is introduced to the syllabus. The last thing that schools and employers want is more change for change’s sake – a guarantee that Labour’s education spokesman refuses to provide in today’s era of political pointscoring.