Testing time for GCSEs

HERE is a multiple choice test to stretch the brain power of even this summer's batch of record-breaking exam students.

Tick the correct statement between each of the following options:

Exams are getting too easy. Exams are harder than ever before.

Students are passing subjects in record numbers. Students are dropping subjects in record numbers.

The number of pupils taking GCSEs early shows teaching standards must be going up. The number of pupils taking GCSEs early shows exam standards must be going down.

Separating claim from counter-claim in the wake of this year's A-level and GCSE exam results is not easy.

And while many students were rightly celebrating their achievements, senior education figures were recognising the exam system is ripe for reform.

The Government has already carried out a shake- of A-levels, with this summer's school-leavers the first through the new system.

The Department for Education and Skills felt vindicated by the leap in the pass rate, from 89.8 to 94.3 per cent.

But last Thursday the increase in A* - C passes at GCSE only sneaked up by 0.8 per cent to 57.9 per cent.

For a government promising a two per cent jump year-on-year by 2004, this was less of a leap, more of a tentative shuffle.

And with boys again falling further behind girls - which is "unacceptable", according to minister for lifelong learning Margaret Hodge - the target is still some way off.

Phil Willis, the Liberal Democrats' education spokesman, called for GCSEs to be scrapped and replaced by a broader curriculum for 14 to 19-year-olds.

He said: "Students, tested to destruction, are having their achievements devalued by a system that puts exams before education."

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "It makes no sense to have three exams between 15 and 18."

But Sussex headteachers have rallied behind the GCSE system and warned against the kind of interference which has disrupted A-level timetables.

Dr Anthony Seldon, headteacher of Brighton College, said: "GCSEs are vitally important for providing a target for many pupils to focus on. They're allowed to see which subjects they enjoy and are good at, which to carry on with and which to drop."

Before the Government's Curriculum 2000 reforms, most pupils studied three A-level subjects during two years. Now they choose four or five subjects for their AS-level exams in the lower sixth, followed by A2 exams 12 months later.

Supporters say the reforms have given students more breadth, closer to the European-style Baccalaureate. But students have complained of too much pressure and teachers have raised concerns about having to cram too many topics into too little time.

While the A-level pass rate went up last year, the number of entries actually fell - as have modern language GCSE entries.

The number of GCSE French entries nationwide plummeted 8,539 to 338,468, while those for German dropped 8,917 to 126,216.

Younger pupils at Newlands School in Eastbourne Road, Seaford, are encouraged to take modern languages early.

All the school's Year 10 express linguistic group scored A* to B grades a year early, while Year 9 pupil Kioran Loens got A*s in French and Dutch and a B in Spanish.

Headteacher Oliver Price said: "At a time when language teaching nationally seems to be in some decline, we are justifiably proud of the achievements of so many of our pupils."

But last year 36,000 UK students were allowed to opt out of GCSE languages for more vocational subjects.

The Government has proposed curriculum changes which would allow secondary school pupils to opt out of languages totally.

Dr Jill Clough, headteacher of East Brighton College of Media Arts (Comart), is most concerned about students' performances being constantly talked down.

Lianne Shaw, 16, of Whitehawk Road, Brighton, could not believe her eyes when she saw she had six As and two Bs. She said: "When I opened my envelope I seriously thought I'd been given the wrong one."

Callie Brown, 16, who got an A, three Bs, two Cs and three Ds, said: "I'd prepared myself for failure."

Dr Clough said: "That's the problem we have - pupils prepare themselves to do badly. They're not used to thinking of themselves as capable."

The realistic priority for Comart was not to achieve a bank of A* grades but to ensure students did well enough to secure college places.

The school in Wilson Avenue, Brighton, was among the 200 worst-performing in England when last year's GCSE results were published.

The number of pupils gaining five or more GCSEs at grade C or above rose from 14 to 17 per cent this year. But Dr Clough has calculated that figure rises to 24 per cent when taking out the non-attending students the school had virtually written off as under-achievers.

Other headteachers fear the publication of league tables for different reasons.

Seaford College, near Petworth, takes pupils with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, many of whom enter school a year later than most. This means that they are not counted in the national league tables for GCSE results.

This year 75 per cent of its students gained five or more passes at A* to C. But as several pupils in Year 10 are 16 this year, the league table figure will be 69 per cent.

Last year the school's 80 per cent A* to C figure was slashed to 53 per cent in the final table.

Headteacher Toby Mullins said: "The system is quite blatantly discriminatory to non-selective schools like ourselves who do not have rigid admission standards based on age."

But while schools and education leaders review the system, there is little respite for the students.

Brighton College pupil Laura Barnett achieved ten A*s in her GCSEs, despite taking her exams a year earlier than most.

She fears the curriculum system will take its toll as she embarks on another two years of intensive examinations.

Laura, 15, of Barn Hatch Close, Lewes, said: "My GCSEs were a really slog. I can't believe they can be called easy. It's not a nice thought that I've got it all again next year and the year after."