Do we need all these exams?
Here’s a bold prediction. GCSEs will be scrapped in the next 5–7 years.
This week you’ll see public outrage on exam results. However, the furore about this part of assessment culture was well underway before COVID-19 hit. If your child is currently in the education system, and this prediction comes true, then this has huge implications for their schooling experience. Yes, it fundamentally changes the structure and focus of school.
Some big names have thrown their weight behind the movement in recent years. These include Robert Halfon MP (Chair of the Education Select Committee), as well as some of the leading Headteachers in the State and Private Sector. Allow me to name drop a few you may have heard of — King Alfred School, Eton College and Latymer Upper. Not to mention the growing shared sentiment by the 3 parties that are most affected by GCSEs — the pupils, teachers and parents.
But probably the most influential voice so far is Lord Kenneth Baker, the same man that introduced them in the 1980s (when he was the Education Secretary). He also makes the point that the current GCSE system pushes creative subjects out of the curriculum, which we are already seeing with music, design, drama and art. This echoes the message from Sir Ken Robinson, who has the most-watched TED talk of all time, titled “Do schools kill creativity?”. It’s thought-provoking, laced with humour and well worth a watch.
I’ve had discussions with some educators who have said, “Ah but it took 10 years to update GCSEs in 2017 (they got much harder), so this stuff would take decades”. Maybe they are right, but we’ve all seen how the lockdown response has accelerated change. Not only that, but until March of this year, it was unthinkable that GCSEs could be cancelled anytime soon. Then overnight, collective belief systems were forced to change.
“..collective belief systems were forced to change”
One of the most worrying aspects is that Standardised Assessment is a business. For example, Pearson, the FTSE 100 listed Global Education company own Edexcel. Edexcel is one of the most prolific examination boards in the UK. Look under the hood and you’ll find other private, profit-seeking companies including Cambridge International Assessment (OCR). As an example, schools pay £41.50 to Edexcel for each pupil that sits GCSE Mathematics. That rises to £78.20 if you want your school to enter you for GCSE Science. These big publishers also create and sell the same textbooks that teachers and pupils are then married to for years. Although regulated by Ofqual, they naturally have a deep interest in maintaining the status quo. This is the same Ofqual whose reputation has been tarnished amidst the A-level result fiasco of August 2020.
“Standardised Assessment is a Business”
Standardised Assessment is about Performance. It’s not the same as Learning. You cannot see learning; you can only see the performance. If anything, it propagates the “cramming” mentality we all grew up with. Why apply steady consistent effort to deeply understand something, when you can harness the power of your working memory in the 72 hours before an exam? This robs us of the opportunity to make meaningful connections between subjects over a number of years. Unsurprisingly many of us forget the key principles within weeks of the exam, as we simply just want the certificate to take with us on our travels. Put in psychology terms, it shifts the balance away from an intrinsic motivation to learn towards an extrinsic desire to pass. Pupils are driven by the question “will this be on the exam?” as opposed to the intellectual curiosity of learning for its own sake. That’s not to say a form of Assessment doesn’t have its place, and some of the most respected names in Education such as Dr. Dylan Wiliam have argued this point. The question is, does it have to be GCSEs? (hint: I don’t think he is their biggest fan).
In parallel, school’s and education policy are already on the trajectory to align students with 21st-century skills. There are many ways to think about the 21st-century skills we could be teaching our kids. I found the following 6Cs to be a helpful framework.
If you speak to enough teachers, they’ll tell you one of the biggest things they are hamstrung by is exams and marking. They can’t veer off the curriculum or dedicate adequate time and resources to these 6Cs, especially in the precious years before GCSEs are due.
Another reason to scrap them is pupil mental health. Let’s go back to Lord Baker for a sec:
“GCSE exams have a profound impact on young people’s mental health, as well as impacting on young people’s overall school experience”
This view was backed up by findings from the National Education Union, who that found that a whopping 73% of their members felt that the reformed GCSEs has made student mental health worse. That’s hardly an endorsement at a time when mental health issues in young people is on the rise.
Right now, the UK is the only European country to assess students nationally at age 16, then do it all over again two years later at age 18. In a different survey of 800 senior leadership teachers, nearly 40% per cent said they thought GCSE qualifications should be scrapped. Furthermore, the removal of standardised testing is often one of the key ingredients people point to when celebrating the incredible Finnish education system. To be clear, nobody is saying the same for A-levels, as Universities still need a way to determine academic rigour.
For now, the Department of Education (DfE) uphold GCSEs as the gold standard. This is in part Michael Gove’s legacy. However, as a new wave of politicians comes in, and more progressive parents start having children, we will only see the strength of this movement increase.
More interestingly, what will take their place when they are scrapped? I have a hunch that ePortfolios (digital portfolios) for each individual will become increasingly important. But more on that next time…
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For those of you who are new to my newsletter, this was the last post. I’ll be following up with a closer look at ePortfolio’s. It’s a good time to start building a digital portfolio now, ready for the careers of the future. If you think about it, the idea of a 1 page CV is laughably outdated.
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