Commenting on research by the Sutton Trust on the impact of
GCSE reforms, Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association
of School and College Leaders, said:
“The fact that the attainment gap between disadvantaged
pupils and their classmates has widened since the introduction of
new, tougher GCSEs is a terrible indictment of these reforms. The
government was obsessed with the idea of providing harder GCSEs
and a new grading system which stretches and differentiates
between the most able students. But the issue that we really need
to address is how to better serve students who face the greatest
level of challenge. The new GCSE system does the exact opposite
by making their lives even more difficult.
“The full extent of the impact on these students is masked
by the system of ‘comparable outcomes’ which keeps results
broadly stable from one year to the next. This is why the impact
on the attainment gap has been relatively small. The reality is
that the students who struggle the most – many of whom come from
disadvantaged backgrounds – have a very poor experience of the
new GCSEs and leave school feeling demoralised about their
prospects for onward progression to courses and careers. As the
Sutton Trust points out, they may also lose out as a result of
greater differentiation at the top end of the ability scale if
employers or universities focus on those achieving top
marks.
“We are calling for an overhaul of GCSEs which improves the
prospects of the forgotten third of students who currently fall
short of achieving at least a Grade 4 ‘standard pass’ in GCSE
English and maths. New ‘passport’ qualifications should be
introduced in English, and in time maths, which all students
would take at the point of readiness between the ages of 15 and
19. In the longer term, we must look at whether such high-stakes
exams as GCSEs are appropriate in a system where young people
continue in education or training until the age of 18.”
