Update to the[Update] "English Baccalaureate" replaces GCSE in England

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19620075

Changes to the exam system for 16-year-olds in England will "give parents confidence" in the exams taken by their children, says Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
Mr Clegg and Education Secretary Michael Gove are due to unveil the new GCSE exam regime.
From 2015, the current GCSEs are set to be replaced with what ministers claim will be a more rigorous system.
Assessment will be based on an O-level style single end-of-year exam.

A leak during the exam season had claimed that GCSEs would be abolished and replaced with an O-level for the more able and a separate exam for pupils of a lower ability.
But this prompted a dispute within the coalition over introducing such a two-tier system - which seems to have been resolved so that there is a single exam for all ability levels.

Can't see how that will work unless they stick to a foundation and an advanced level..and guess what, not many employees will even consider foundation level passes.

Addressing the education select committee last week, Mr Gove suggested that an exam could be taken at different points between 16 and 18 years of age - allowing weaker pupils to catch up.

Ah well that will keep the sixth form colleges going and keep the 16-18 year olds off the unemployment stats.

What happens if weaker students don't manage it by 18?
Where are the jobs that the lower third of each examination year during the GCE O-level pre CSE used to take up when they left school with no qualifications?

Gone abroad.Where are the industries that replaced them? Gone abroad.

[nomadking]

Spreading out the taking/retaking of 'O' levels is nothing new.

The are still jobs for those with no qualifications, but the exam system has given people delusions of grandeur that they are better than they actually are. Whatever system is used, there will be people at the bottom end of it. If not, that will only be because the exams have no true value.

The problem is it would seem that this change means that yet again the emphasis is on academic achievement.Vocational training will yet again be at the bottom of the to do list..

The one person currently making sense is Lord Kenneth Baker who was actually instrumental in introducing in GCSEs.And no he doesn't want to keep them.He's got more radical ideas about introducing vocational training and wants to stop testing at 16.He wants to test at 14 to see in which direction our children should go in the training they receive between 14 and 18..He also points out that there is more than one way to learn and to achieve one's goals.

Originally Posted by nomadking

Spreading out the taking/retaking of 'O' levels is nothing new.

The are still jobs for those with no qualifications, but the exam system has given people delusions of grandeur that they are better than they actually are. Whatever system is used, there will be people at the bottom end of it. If not, that will only be because the exams have no true value.

Unfortunately that flies in the face of 50 years of educational dogma - we have a one-size-fits-all comprehensive education system and a one-size-fits-all exam system because the establishment wanted to ensure that everyone turns out the same.

It's no accident that GCSEs and A levels have reached the stage where it's impossible to tell the bright students apart by their exam results. That's simply the inevitable consequence of making the work incrementally easier and easier with the aim of ensuring that as few people at the bottom of the ability range can be said to have 'failed' anything.

The whole system has been skewed in pursuit of this crazy ideology that can't bear the simple truth that some kids are bright and some kids are thick. They shut down the Grammar schools, which really were an engine of social mobility, and look where we are now - vast numbers of public school toffs on both sides of the House of Commons, because in most of the country, parents who want to ensure their kids get the very best education now have no option but to pay for it.

The same thing is now happening in the Universities. These institutions, now groaning under the weight of their own witless Meedja Studies courses and the endless ranks of school leavers who populate them, are charging vast fees for a level of education that once upon a time was free of charge to those who actually stood to benefit from it. Thus a policy that on the face of it was socially liberating - higher education for everyone that could possibly do it - is now turning out, just as the assault on the Grammar schools was, to be simply another means of ensuring that the vast majority get stuck with mediocrity while those from moneyed backgrounds continue to pick and choose the best.

Stupid, stupid, shortsighted lefties. Sadly, Gove is unlikely to be allowed to go nearly as far as he needs to, to turn this ship around.

Media studies should never have been allowed onto any syllabus as an examination subject..That we can agree on.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19626663

The GCSE exam in England is going to be replaced by a qualification called the English Baccalaureate Certificate.
A shake-up of the exam system set to be unveiled will mean a single end-of-course exam and one exam board for each subject.
Pupils who have begun secondary school this year will be the first to take the revised exams in 2017.

The crux of this whole education "debate" is very simple. It does not matter how you grade the examinations, irrespective of which body is responsible for them. Teach those subjects properly. There is no point in altering the marks awarded if those responsible are also ill educated. I could cite innumerable examples with regard to how teachers are illiterate, innumerate and incompetent. Off my high horse now.

Originally Posted by jempalmer

The crux of this whole education "debate" is very simple. It does not matter how you grade the examinations, irrespective of which body is responsible for them. Teach those subjects properly. There is no point in altering the marks awarded if those responsible are also ill educated. I could cite innumerable examples with regard to how teachers are illiterate, innumerate and incompetent. Off my high horse now.

A qualification that is based entirely on final exam performance should achieve precisely that. There are no opportunities to endlessly reproduce coursework until you get the right result if everything hangs on the final assessment. For the first time in decades, it's just possible that exam results in England might prove that school pupils have actually learned stuff ...

Originally Posted by Chris

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19626663

So this is the one single exam for leaving school? Brilliant if that is the case....

[BenMcr]

I'm feeling a little bit odd now. I'm not a fan of Michael Gove in any way, but I think this could be a good thing.

Might have to go have a shower shortly

[Taf]

I'd like to see pupils about to leave primary schools examined on at least the 3 R's, as in my experience that it's primary schools that are churning out more and more illiterate and innumerate pupils. And once they have failed at primary level, they are never allowed to catch up.

Turns out it's not a single qualification like the normal Baccalaureate is. Confusing....

[Itshim]

Originally Posted by Taf

I'd like to see pupils about to leave primary schools examined on at least the 3 R's, as in my experience that it's primary schools that are churning out more and more illiterate and innumerate pupils. And once they have failed at primary level, they are never allowed to catch up.

To much time wasted teaching Welsh. Get off hobby horse now

Originally Posted by Chris

A qualification that is based entirely on final exam performance should achieve precisely that. There are no opportunities to endlessly reproduce coursework until you get the right result if everything hangs on the final assessment. For the first time in decades, it's just possible that exam results in England might prove that school pupils have actually learned stuff ...

Actually the only single thing that's going to be the most effective is...

There will be one exam board for some key subjects - English, mathematics, sciences, history, geography and languages - rather than having different exam boards competing with their own versions.

That was what really needed.

I really don't like the lack of coursework. Can be a good chance for students who otherwise lack ability to exams to do well. I always did poorly at exams but very good at coursework....