Axe looming for ‘soft’ GCSEs like Hospitality and Planning for Life

A STRING of GCSE subjects deemed to be ‘too easy’ are facing the axe as part of a radical overhaul by the Government’s exam watchdog.

Courses such as Leisure and Tourism, Health and Social Care, and Preparing for Work and Life – which teaches pupils about finding and applying for jobs – could be stripped of their status as GCSEs.

Education Secretary Michael Gove is already toughening up core subjects such as maths and English to boost the exam’s academic reputation. Now regulator Ofqual is set to draw up rigorous guidelines that are expected to result in a swathe of ‘soft’ qualifications losing their GCSE label.

Critics believe many of these qualifications are popular with head teachers because they have allowed less academically gifted children to achieve passes in nationally recognised exams, so boosting the school’s position in league tables.

Figures released last week show the number of pupils taking Leisure and Tourism this summer is 7,461 – a 120 per cent rise compared with the previous year. In 2013, more than two-thirds of students achieved at least a C grade in the subject.

Health and Social Care is being studied by 18,193 pupils this year, up 44 per cent on 2013, when more than half scored a C or above. And just over 30,000 youngsters are taking Hospitality, which focuses on the hotel and restaurant trade – up 21 per cent on last year. Again, more than half of students achieved a C grade or higher last summer.

Other ‘soft’ GCSE subjects where pupils did particularly well last year included Preparation for Life and Work, and Media Studies.

Detractors say many of these GCSEs, introduced under the last Labour Government, lack academic discipline and ‘discredit’ the system. They want them axed or else become vocational courses.

Ofqual, which approves courses drawn up by exam boards, has said that the number of non-academic subjects available ‘devalues’ the GCSE ‘brand’.

The organisation said that while it would not make rulings on individual subjects, it would be drawing up criteria that exam boards would have to meet if their papers were to keep their GCSE status after 2016. The guidelines will call for more rigorous content and assessment.

One question in last summer’s Leisure and Tourism exam included: ‘Old Trafford is the home of Manchester United Football Club. This is an example of a major sports venue. Name one other example of a major sports venue.’

In 2011, the paper asked: ‘Which of the following is an example of a natural attraction? Blackpool Tower, Madame Tussauds, Ben Nevis or The London Eye?’

In Health and Social Care, questions over recent years have included: ‘Starting school is associated with which life stage? Middle adulthood, early childhood, adolescence or puberty?’, and ‘James was recently diagnosed with diabetes. He is obese, has a poor diet and drinks heavily. Assess how James’s lifestyle may affect his health and wellbeing.’

Chris McGovern, of the Campaign For Real Education, said: ‘These are far too easy for GCSEs. This is obviously a dilution of academic standards and a sad reflection on our examiners that they expect so little. It is a tragic situation.

‘We must get rid of these Mickey Mouse GCSEs. They discredit the entire exam system.’

Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre For Education And Employment Research at Buckingham University, said: ‘GCSEs have spawned in all sorts of directions, some of which look mainly to be a way of occupying the time of nonacademic pupils rather than being qualifications that mean something and lead somewhere.

‘It doesn’t make sense to have them as the equivalent of, say, physics or history.

‘The revision of the GCSE structures is the ideal opportunity to decide which are of the right standards and which can be pruned to the benefit of everyone.’

Prof Smithers said many of them could be reclassified as vocational qualifications. Other GCSE subjects popular in colleges could also lose their status, including Catering, Contemporary Crafts, and Motor Vehicle and Road User Studies.

The Government has already indicated that, apart from maths, English, science and languages, it wants to retain GCSEs in religious studies, design and technology, art and design, drama, dance, music, physical education, computer science and citizenship studies.