Advanced British Standard is ‘headless chicken policymaking’ says ASCL

Commenting on the launch of a consultation on plans for a new post-16 qualification, the Advanced British Standard, Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

“We currently have a severe and deepening funding and teacher shortage crisis in education, and the government is preoccupied with introducing a new qualification which would take a decade to develop and will probably not happen at all. It is difficult to imagine a more pointless waste of energy and time.

“The government press release studiously avoids saying that the Advanced British Standard will replace A-levels and T-levels, although this is exactly what it would do. This is despite the fact that A-levels have long been considered a ‘gold standard’ and that T-levels are a flagship government policy and haven’t even been fully rolled out yet.

“This is truly a form of headless chicken policymaking”