THE British government has dropped a requirement for students to pass basic skills exams in English to get a grade C or above in the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education). Instead, they will take a separate exam in "functional" literacy, the Guardian newspaper has reported.
A government education white paper in 2005 stipulated that, in order to get a grade A to C, GCSE students would have to pass a complementary "functional skills" exam focused on basic reading and writing. Under some new proposals — due to be introduced in 2010 — exams will involve key concepts such as spelling and commas. But Ofqual (Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator), which had been looking at ways to introduce the measure, said this wouldn’t work fairly.
In a letter to the UK schools minister, Jim Knight, Ofqual’s chair, Kathleen Tattersall, said the measure would cause problems with "perceived fairness", and would be technically difficult to introduce and could risk "bringing the qualifications concerned into disrepute". Also, functional skills exams should be separate from GCSEs, while other means should be used to get students to sit them, she added.
In his reply, Knight accepted the recommendations. Changes will be made from September next year. Knight said functional skills should be at the heart of changes to allow students to develop "essential knowledge, skills and understanding", which meant that these skills would be assessed extensively.
School leaders welcomed the decision that functional skills should be a stand-alone exam and not be linked to GCSE grades. David Laws, the Liberal Democrats’ schools spokesman, said it was embarrassing for ministers to have their plans rejected. "Many people will be surprised that it’s possible to pass English GCSE without a good grasp of the basics. All teenagers should be tested in these basic skills before they leave school," Laws added.
