GOVE PUSHES ON WITH PLANS FOR THE RETURN OF O-LEVELS
MICHAEL Gove will this week press ahead with reforms designed to fix the exam system as he vows to replace GCSEs with a more rigorous, O-level-style exam.
The Education Secretary is expected to unveil plans to introduce a new qualification before the next election in 2015, arguing that GCSEs ‘haven’t worked’.
There has been a bitter row within the coalition over Mr Gove’s proposals, with Liberal Democrats vowing to oppose any return to a ‘two-tier’ system under which less gifted children sit different exams.
Mr Gove has conceded that the ‘overwhelming majority’ of students should sit the new qualifications – but insists they must properly recognise the best students.
In a little-noticed move, the new Conservative education minister Elizabeth Truss has been handed responsibility for exam reform following last week’s Government reshuffle, rather than Mr Gove’s new Liberal Democrat number two, David Laws.
Plans for the new examination will be put out for consultation before it is introduced in 2014.
Mr Gove said: ‘I think one of the things that’s important to stress is that the O-level is an examination which in the past used to be sat by a minority, which is why when people have discussed its potential return they’ve automatically assumed it would be a minority exam.
‘But in fact, in other jurisdictions, in countries like Singapore, there are examinations which are set which are very reminiscent of the old O-level, but a majority... 80 per cent of students can pass them.
‘I think what we need to do is to have an examination that has all the rigour of the old Olevel but which is sat by a majority of students, so that we can ensure that everyone is treated fairly.’