Gove does it again!

Yes, you are right. It is the exam board system that needs tightening up. Standards have to be enforced at that level. A divisive system doesn't make sense, when fixing it is much fairer, cheaper and easier to do.

I'm also concerned about the cost of a top down review of the exam system. Why not identify the faults (many of which seem to lie with the system of exam boards competing to get schools to take their exams, the schools go for the boards with the best pass rates naturally enough, which means the boards make the exams easier to make the pass rate higher) and fix them, instead of reverting to a system that was so riddled with inequalities that even back in the days of the original nasty party they were identified as being unfair.

Yes, it makes sense what headfairy and others have said. Why not just make GCSEs harder, increase the standard? Why is there a need to go back to a two-tier system. It doesn't make sense and looks like it was just throwing meat to the Mail reader as a deflection from the important doctors' strike.

This government won't be satisfied until it has turned the clock back on just about everything and it is 1981 again. What is it about 1981 that you all liked so much, Tories?

Very good point, headfairy. They have tricked me and millions of Mail readers on this one. A lesson learnt in the spin tactics of the game. Poor show.

Claig, Lord knows what the Daily Mail are doing. However, Gove saying he'd like to bring back O levels is a loooooong way from the policy actually being implemented. It has to be presented as a white paper (and all those glaring holes have to be filled in first), the Lib Dems have to support it to get it through (and they're faaar from doing that) and it has to get through the Lords too. So all in all, I'd be amazed if Gove even managed to get this on the statute books before 2016, let alone get the exams out then.

Slug agree completely. You deserve an A* in GCSE Spotting Politicians' Bullshit .

That all those Mail readers who commented "about bloody time" are going to have to wait yet longer?

Has the Daily Mail reader been tricked - used as just a pawn in the game?

So are you saying that they have got the Daily Mail readers' hopes up but won't follow through? That all those Mail readers clicking green arrows supporting comments that praise this policy are all in vain?

Just looked at the Guardian website, and the Gove story seems to be in top left position, with doctors' strike two places down. Why have teh Guarian given this story so much publicity, why aren't they giving the doctors' strike more? Are they getting ready once again to tell their readers that they "enthusiastically" back Nick Clegg?

Excellent point about the doctor's strike. That does explain today's release.

it's not Tory policy at all. And it is also significant that today is the day the doctors strike. A distraction was needed You hit the nail on the head slug

The story was given to the Mail. That in itself should make you think about the machinations behind it.

It's also worth pointing out that the policy was approved by no one but Gove's office i.e. it's not Tory policy at all. And it is also significant that today is the day the doctors strike. A distraction was needed.

'I think Gove is a bit of a superhero.'

Quip, you're not alone!

I think Gove is a bit of a superhero. Real changes seem to be happening in education, and it's tangible things that people understand and identify with. Hooray!

Oh, I didn't realise that, headfairy.

Claig, the story was only given to the Mail, The Guardian got wind of it from them in the early hours (insider knowledge)

'In 1984 when Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government introduced GCSEs, the Guardian reported on education secretary Sir Keith Joseph saying that the new system would be "tougher, because it would demand more of pupils; would be fairer because pupils would be judged by what they could do and not how they compared to someone else; and would be clearer because everyone would know what had been tested."

Josephine teachers tell kids exactly what they need to do to get top grades, rather than just teaching the subject. You do realise that students have to know the subject in order to get top grades? Exam technique is very important but you can't get an A (in my subject at least) at GCSE without knowing the entire* specification and knowing how to answer the questions fully.
There are problems with GCSEs and A levels, there is grade inflation, some subjects are a great deal easier than others but to get rid of them is foolish. I wish Michael Gove would look further than his own experience as a student in the 1970s for inspiration as to how to reform the education system.

Blimey, it seems that Keith Joseph, a mentor of Margaret Thatcher, had something to do with GCSEs

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/21/scrapping-gcses-hurt-children

When I listened to teh news headlines this morning, they said that two papers had the story - the Daily Mail and the Guardian

I love how the Daily Mail has told this story, as though it's a done deal. It's nothing more than a suggestion. The Lib Dems have serious doubts and are mumbling about not supporting the proposed changes. This is nothing more than Gove throwing ideas up in the air probably to deflect the news from other more damaging stories, lets not forget he only leaked it to a Tory friendly newspaper

I don't agree that they have been dumbed down. Standards are much higher at aged 16 than when I was at school doing O levels and CSE's back in the day.
Tressy that is utter tosh. I did GCSEs in the mid 90s and when we looked at old O level papers they were far harder than than the ones we were doing. The standard of GCSE today is shockingly low, and teachers tell kids exactly what they need to do to get top grades, rather than just teaching the subject.

I don't understand why we can't take the good things of each system to create something better, rather than reverting to a system that was considered inadequate 25 years ago.

I did O levels, and being put forward for CSEs was a huge deal in our school. NO one wanted that to happen. It was like being marked for life :(