GCSE's and National Curriculum Scrapped by 2014.....O levels to replace them

Castiel said:
I had no idea that the exam boards were giving different papers, let alone that schools could shop around for the easiest ones.

I thought the exam boards were just regional and that they had to adhere to a set standard of exam.......

This makes the GCSE a lottery of sorts......
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It's OK, there is a regulator! Of course, like many, the are a bit useless.

Unfortunately school league tables are a good example of the road to hell being paved with good intentions. If you make the most important thing for a school to do is pass exams then the school is going to do everything it can to pass exams.

Of course the real difficulty is find a decent metric that is relatively easy or cheap to measure. Though before league tables parents still managed to work out which were the best schools in the area...
 
Castiel said:
I had no idea that the exam boards were giving different papers, let alone that schools could shop around for the easiest ones.

I thought the exam boards were just regional and that they had to adhere to a set standard of exam.......

This makes the GCSE a lottery of sorts......
Click to expand...

It's not just that the papers are different styles, in a lot of ways the courses are completely different. For the sciences, AQA coursework is a pre-determined, assessed practical followed by an uninvigilated (which might explain some of the wacky grade boundaries) exam paper partially based on that practical. OCR is much more of a 'free reign' thing - go away, pick a topic, do a practical and write an essay/do a presentation about it.

In a way the choice is good, in that it allows schools to move away when exam boards are just being silly (like AQA has been for the last few years, a lot of teachers i've talked to have said they're strongly considering changing). But you shouldn't be able to get to that point anyway. The question is would you be able to with a single, well regulated public affair?
 
RDM said:
It's OK, there is a regulator! Of course, like many, the are a bit useless.

Unfortunately school league tables are a good example of the road to hell being paved with good intentions. If you make the most important thing for a school to do is pass exams then the school is going to do everything it can to pass exams.

Of course the real difficulty is find a decent metric that is relatively easy or cheap to measure. Though before league tables parents still managed to work out which were the best schools in the area...
Click to expand...

As unscientific and probably equally useless that is might be, I have always looked at the appearance, politeness and behaviour of the children to and from school as a good indicator of how good a school might be......

But you are right about target driven education...all you are encouraging is teaching to target and not giving a broad inclusve education....
 
So with the Lib Dems against this, Tory ministers coming out and attacking Gove saying this isn't Government policy and Gove himself being very quiet about it with journalists yesterday....was all this just hot air soundbites and no substance?
 
Perhaps if they had schools revert to teaching the subject rather than spending the majority of years 10 & 11 teaching them to only pass the exam we wouldn't need such drastic revisions of the system.
 
Isn't this 'Teaching kids just to pass an exam' a consequence of School League Tables though?

Sure, we need to rate and assess Schools, but when you publish them in league tables as we do, then of course schools are going to use methods to enhance their results.
 
I think one of the causes of dumbing down of the gcse qualification are league tables and multi exam boards. Gove needs to focus on producing something that after school might actually get you a chance of getting a job without doing A levels or Uni as not every kid will go on to A levels or Uni, so a qualification that employers respect which focuses on skills required. They also need to make sure kids have the basics of reading and writing and grammar at an earlier age.
 
Oh and any exam shouldn't be just a memory test, it should test understanding of knowledge learned with scenarios, case studies, etc. Course work should be much less important as its not that hard to use google or copy your mate's homework and use slightly different words!
 
Janesy B said:
[Pic of quotes from retarded students]
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What a bunch of morons lol, the only value a GCSE has ever had is to get you into 6th form or college so you can get 'real' qualifications and that isn't going to change overnight.



Jonny2284 said:
Perhaps if they had schools revert to teaching the subject rather than spending the majority of years 10 & 11 teaching them to only pass the exam we wouldn't need such drastic revisions of the system.
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This pretty much.
 
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And the other thing is that these days, as a result of the Internet, it's far easier to find information and just cut and paste it. In my day there was no Internet, you had to actually go to a library and study the relevant parts from a book.
 
oldbag said:
And the other thing is that these days, as a result of the Internet, it's far easier to find information and just cut and paste it. In my day there was no Internet, you had to actually go to a library and study the relevant parts from a book.
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Well it is quite easy to get caught with a simple google search.
Most schools have software that will detect it.
 
Freakbro said:
So with the Lib Dems against this, Tory ministers coming out and attacking Gove saying this isn't Government policy and Gove himself being very quiet about it with journalists yesterday....was all this just hot air soundbites and no substance?
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Suggestion this morning that it was Gove putting a marker down to be the next leader of the Conservative party after David Cameron. Since the only other two candidates are Boris Johnson, who isn't an MP and George Osborne, who is making an awful mess of things, it's felt there's an opportunity for someone and Gove has started by getting the right wing of the party behind him.
 
Castiel said:
As unscientific and probably equally useless that is might be, I have always looked at the appearance, politeness and behaviour of the children to and from school as a good indicator of how good a school might be......

But you are right about target driven education...all you are encouraging is teaching to target and not giving a broad inclusve education....
Click to expand...

Alas, from the way some family members (deputy heads etc) talk, it's a complete joke of a system. They are continually measured and made to better their grades each year, or face disciplinarys and even cuts in money recieved!


You mentioned you might get your son into the baccalaureate? My sister has just done it, so if you want any first hand knowledge, I'll be happy to ask.

Must confess though that it looks harder than the UK equilivant.
 
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