PUPILS who speak English as their second language in the UK could sit a separate GCSE (The General Certificate of Secondary Education) in English under plans being drawn up, Sunday Telegraph has reported.
In a highly controversial move, the UK Government's exam watchdog the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has held discussions about the need for the English exam to accommodate the soaring number of ethnic minority students.
The new exam, being called the "EAL (English as an additional language) GCSE", is likely to focus on basic writing skills and concentrate less on style and context than the standard English GCSE. GCSE is the principal means of assessing pupil attainment at the end of compulsory secondary education, taken by secondary school students, at the age 14-16 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. All candidates take GCSEs in English, Mathematics and Science. EAL GCSE is likely to be less demanding than the current GCSE in English and similar to modern foreign language exams.
The proposal for the new test emerged after latest figures showed that one in eight pupils in England has a mother tongue other than English. In primary schools, where the number of pupils with English as their second language last year rose by 7 per cent to 448,000, the figure is one in seven. It is not uncommon to find schools where more than 50 languages are spoken.
Mick Waters, the QCA's director of curriculum, said: "Up to 60,000 (students) a year might potentially focus on this examination. "
He added: "Given that working in another language is at the heart of the school experience for a significant number of pupils in school, it might be good to recognize that they have achieved certain criteria in the fundamental area of English."
Justifying the initiative, Waters said English-speaking pupils taking a French GCSE would find it tougher than native French speakers taking the same exam.
However, the proposal for a separate GCSE provoked immediate controversy with warning from the Tories that it risked turning immigrant children into "second-class citizens". A change implies that schools are incapable of bringing pupils up to the level required for the general GCSE and that a two-tier system should be created to provide ethnic minority students with an easier exam.
David Willetts, the shadow education secretary, said: "We should be doing everything possible to integrate children who don't have English as their first language."
