Friday 8 February 2013

Examination reform

Michael Gove is about to perform a tweak on his plan to scrap GCSEs - an exam he has repeatedly described as discredited and lacking credibility with employers. He will scrap his plan to replace them with a brand new exam which were to be known formally as the EBC but by everyone else as EBaccs.

However, the education secretary will insist that his overall approach lives on ie "more rigorous" end-of-year exams will replace continuous modular assessment, and school league tables will depend in future on how pupils do in 8 core subjects not, on how many children passed the re-sit of their macrame module. Since the civil service always called this collection of GCSEs in core subjects the EBacc, Michael Gove can claim the EBacc approach survives.

When the exam regulator Ofqual and the education select committee examined this reform of the entire exam system they said that it was a recipe for chaos since too much change was being planned in too short a time. A rather rash and over the top statement which the opposition has leapt on.

People may end up wondering what all the fuss was about, and as I have said before in supporting Michael Gove, I agree with his stance on education today.

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