Majority of school leaders wanted GCSE reform

A new ASCL survey has revealed that 86 per cent of school and college leaders have called for GCSEs to be reformed or scrapped.

The survey of 799 school and college leaders in England highlighted widespread dissatisfaction with GCSEs, which have been reformed since 2015 to make them more difficult, with more content and exams. Respondents argued that the GCSEs do not work well for all students, and raised concerns that these qualifications are not accessible to a significant proportion of lower attaining students, including those with special educational needs.

Only 13.5 per cent of respondents think that GCSEs should be retained in their current form. A common theme among many respondents was the need for a broader range of alternative qualifications to GCSEs, in particular vocational qualifications.

Rachael Warwick, President of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Is it really too much to ask that the government looks again at GCSEs? That it recognises that the reforms it introduced to deliberately make GCSEs harder have resulted in life becoming even more difficult for the very children who most need our support? Surely, the fact that this is being said by school leaders – the people who deliver these qualifications – should be listened to.

“The pressure of a large number of terminal exams and the ignominy of Grades 1-3 are creating young people who exhibit unprecedented levels of stress and anxiety.  Add to this the pernicious potential of social media to attack self-esteem and perpetuate bullying, and the fact that nearly a third of the country’s children grow up in grinding, relentless poverty, and we have a perfect storm.”