Howtoupgrade the GCSE system
FOR THE first time i n years, the percentage of pupils achieving higher A* to C grades at GCSE fell, rather than rose. This immediately led to protests that examiners had unfairly moved the goalposts when marking, in response to concerns that the exams have become too easy. GCSEs have never managed to shake off the complaint that they are a soft option compared to the old O-level. An increasing number of schools now prefer pupils to sit international GCSEs — IGCSEs, believing these to provide a more challenging syllabus.
The government is keen to see more academic rigour and wholesale reforms of GCSEs are planned. But one step Education Secretary Michael Gove has already taken to increase academic respectability within the GCSE framework is the introduction (two years ago) of the English Baccalaureate, or EBacc. The EBacc is not a separate exam, but a measure of achievement published in the annual school performance tables. To qualify for an EBacc, a pupil must attain an A* to C grade in maths, English language, double science (or two separate sciences), history or geography and a language. It was designed to encourage pupils to opt for more traditional academic subjects and to halt a slide in the take-up of modern languages. In 2002, threequarters of GCSE candidates took a language, but this had slumped to 43 per cent by the end of the decade. Now more than half are enrolled for a GCSE language course.
According to the Department for Education, whereas 22 per cent of children were enrolled in courses that could lead to an EBacc in 2010, that has risen to 33 per cent, with indications that the number will be close to half by next year. “More young people are following the courses which the best colleges and top employers value,” Mr Gove says.
Last year, around in one in six pupils attained the GCSE grades to qualify for EBacc. The EBacc rate in Jewish schools was much higher, with Hasmonean High School and JFS achieving more than one in two. The best-performing Jewish school was the Yesodey Hatorah Chasidic girls’ high school, in Stamford Hill, north London where the EBacc score reached 69 per cent.
EBacc rates at Jewish schools would rocket if religious studies were included as an alternative to geography and history. But the DfE has so far resisted lobbying from representatives of religious organisations, including the Board of Deputies, to count RS. There are fears within the churches that the growing popularity of religious studies at GCSE — 239,000 students sat the exam this year — could be reversed in future years as pupils prefer EBacc subjects. However, this seems unlikely in Jewish schools where Jewish studies are a core part of the curriculum for all students. In fact, there might be a positive spin-off, because of the EBacc: students who might not otherwise have considered a language at GCSE might now be persuaded to choose one, leading to increased take-up of Ivrit, which too many Jewish students drop at 14.
While the trends must be pleasing to Mr Gove, there is no firm evidence that universities are taking EBacc into account when they offer places. The Russell Group, which represents the leading couple of dozen universities in England, in its document about qualifications for entry, Informed Choices, notes that the EBacc includes “subjects highly valued by the Russell Group, but it is not currently required for any entry to any Russell Group university. With the exception of English and maths, and in a few cases a modern foreign language, most universities have no universal entry requirements in terms of GCSE subjects.”
A spokeswoman for the umbrella body Universities UK says that it is “our understanding that there is limited appetite to use it at the moment, partly because this isn’t a qualification like a GCSE or A-level... but if universities do, then they will state it clearly on their course requirements.” While EBacc was “useful in indicating breadth of study and universities need well-qualified applicants,” she says, “it has been noted that this can also be achieved in other ways.”
But one former university admissions tutor in computer science, writing on a blog, argued that it was a useful measure. According to his experience, students who had qualifications in the core subjects that constituted EBacc almost always did better at university that those who had done other subjects.