Responding to the new report on T levels from the National
Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), Geoff Barton, General
Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders,
said:
“This report identifies a number of serious concerns about
the introduction of T levels and should be ringing alarm bells in
Whitehall with the first students due to embark on these courses
in just nine months’ time.
“These are massive qualifications in terms of the number of
learning hours and work placements which are envisaged – much
larger than other qualifications. This makes them difficult to
timetable and potentially deters students who have to juggle
study with part-time jobs to make ends meet, or students who have
caring responsibilities. It does not help that the full
specifications will not be available until March which leaves an
incredibly tight schedule for developing them for teaching in
September.
“Requiring an industry placement of 45 days is extremely
ambitious and will be hard to achieve at scale without a great
deal more flexibility in what counts towards a placement.
“We also badly need more clarity about the extent to which
these qualifications will be accepted by high tariff
universities.
“As soon as the General Election is over, these concerns
must be a key priority in the Education Secretary’s
in-tray.
“So too should be the lamentable state of 16-19 education
funding in general.
“The investment in T levels is welcome but this represents
a tiny fraction of the students in this phase of education. Plans
to raise the post-16 funding rate next year are not remotely
sufficient to make up for years of real-terms cuts. As the
Institute for Fiscal Studies has highlighted, the extra
money will still leave spending per student
over 7% below its level in 2010–11 in colleges and over 20% below
in sixth forms.
“We would also emphasise the importance of retaining BTECs
and other applied general qualifications which serve many
students extremely well and should not be sacrificed in the
government’s forthcoming review in a misguided attempt to clear
the path for T levels.”
