- This week marks the start of exam season, where a
further 20 new GCSEs will be sat for the first time
- The reformed qualifications will help pupils progress
into further education, higher education and employment
says the CBI
Hundreds of thousands of pupils are preparing to take new,
more rigorous GCSE exams this week, which are on a par with
the best performing education systems in the world, the
School Standards Minister announced today.
The gold-standard qualifications for 20 new GCSEs –
including the sciences, French, German, Spanish, history
and geography – have been designed with employers in mind.
These qualifications are underpinned by more rigorous
content, which has been welcomed by the Confederation of
British Industry (CBI) for preparing pupils for future
careers in the industries that Britain needs. The new
science GCSEs now includes space physics and the human
genome and the new Computer Science GCSE now includes
greater focus on programming.
Schools Standards Minister said:
These more rigorous, gold-standard GCSEs are helping to
nurture the next generation of scientists, linguists and
historians. Whatever pupils want to do with their lives,
these qualifications will prepare them for future success
and help deliver the skills Britain needs to be fit for
the future.
Thanks to our reforms and the hard work of teachers,
education standards are rising in our schools and last
year, teachers and pupils responded well to the new
English and maths exams. I wish pupils all the very best
as they prepare to sit these exams and I look forward to
celebrating their success in the summer.
The start of these exams follows the recent news of funding
to train up to 8000 existing computing teachers to teach
the new GCSE – that is enough to ensure every secondary
school in England has a teacher who can support pupils to
succeed.
The new GCSEs will be graded 9 to 1, with 9 being the top
grade to allow more differentiation between the highest
performing pupils and so that employers can identify the
new, more rigorous qualifications.
It builds on the success of last year’s changes to GCSE
maths and English which saw 59.1 per cent of pupils
achieving a grade 4 or above.
Standards are rising in schools thanks to these reforms and
the hard work of teachers, which has resulted in 1.9
million more children in good or outstanding schools than
2010.
The government’s Industrial Strategy highlighted a shortage
of STEM skills. There is a need to increase number of
people able to study for STEM degrees to support the
current economy and its growth. The reforms to GCSEs and A
levels, as well as these teaching programmes are just two
of the ways this is being achieved.
