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Michael Gove poised to unveil sweeping GCSE reforms - which might never happen

Changes planned for 2015, according to the Mail on Sunday.

By Helen Lewis Published 16 September 2012 12:12

Michael Gove, who is poised to announce GCSE changes. Photo: Getty

In today's Mail on Sunday, Simon Walters claims that Michael Gove will announce sweeping changes to the GCSE system on Tuesday. Among the reported proposals are:

"Grade 1" to replace A*, with only 10 per cent of children getting this mark
Partial resits to be banned
Continuous assessment to be replaced with three-hour final exams
Algebra in maths exams, and essays in English papers
A single exam board, to address concerns that competition has led to a "race to the bottom"

It appears that Liberal Democrat protests over the return to a two-tier O-Level/CSE system have been heeded, as the new exams are being described as "single tier". Walters reports that the reforms will be announced in a joint press conference between Gove and Nick Clegg.

There is, however, one final noteworthy point. According to the MoS report, the proposed changes would not come in until September 2015, with the first candidates sitting the new exams in 2017. The next general election will be held in the summer of 2015, so if the Conservatives lose power, any proposed changes could be scrapped.

The Department of Education has not commented on the reports today.

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Tags: education

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View the discussion thread.

9 comments

Sun, 2012-09-23 02:58 — AAMVN (not verified)

It is quite possible the next government will scrap this half baked scheme within days of taking office. What little work will have been done by teachers/schools preparing for a new system will just be ditched - and everyone will pick up the threads/shreds of the old system.

Small changes will most likely be made to GCSEs to calm things down.

I saw first hand the chaos of GCSE introduction - utter shambles.

Mon, 2012-09-17 12:40 — RichardM (not verified)

@ALANMILLS405

Who says there will be any training? Teachers may well devise work programmes and schemes of work from a year before, but there's nothing to prevent an incoming government to ask then to ignore that and revert to teaching the GCSE, materials for which they will already have. And anyway, it wouldn't be the first time in the past twenty years that changes to syllabus and curriculum have been introduced at very short notice and teachers have just had to make do.

Mon, 2012-09-17 12:35 — RichardM (not verified)

"As long as it is a final exam only test, which admittedly makes it impossible to cheat on"

You obviously don't know anything about education, teaching to the exam and sitting exams, do you Tim Mann?

Sun, 2012-09-16 18:21 — Davidaslindsay (not verified)

It'll never happen. Nothing that Michael Gove says ever does.

Sun, 2012-09-16 16:31 — Tim Mann

Yes, the 10% is ridiculous. That can only be achieved by grade fixing. Gove has also said it will be rigorous and suitable for 80% of pupils! As long as it is a final exam only test, which admittedly makes it impossible to cheat on, which is a good thing, then surely only pupils with a comfortable amount of academic aptitude will succeed. The old O levels were easily kept rigorous because only the most academic were put in for them! In grammar schools, usually.
God forbid pupils should be selected on aptitude!
So here we go again.......................

Sun, 2012-09-16 16:30 — Tim Mann

Sun, 2012-09-16 16:29 — Tim Mann

Sun, 2012-09-16 14:36 — Kevin McManus (not verified)

This 10% is a funny one, if the government is seeking to increase reliability in the exam system. That will be difficult to implement and will presumably result in large amounts of grade boundary changes year on year. It could also make it increasingly difficult to compare performance over the years.

Sun, 2012-09-16 14:05 — alanmills405 (not verified)

Does the writer of this article not realise that teachers have to prepare for new syllabi?

If they are due to start in September 2015, books and training will have started at least a year earlier. Labour won't be able to change anything and with Stephen Twigg in charge, he probably won't want to.