Scrapping GCSEs

The thing that really pisses me off is the way GCSE exams are portrayed as a soft option. I'm ancient and sat O levels. I remember my English Language O level we rocked up did a comprehension paper and a writing paper end of. DD has: 3 Speaking CA, 2 creative writing CA's, one studying written language - extended literature text CA , one studying spoken language CA and two external exam papers - good old comprehension under a new guise and a writing paper. I think my 2 hours or so of exams was by far the easiest option!

apologies, but an amendment to posting of 08.00

azzalw - I don not think your reasons are not robust enough to warrant the prevention of the long overdue changes.

I was too busy having a rant starting my own thread to see this, I hope no-one minds if I copy my message into here:

My ds is in Y8 and if reports are to believed this means he will be one of the last to take GCSEs.

That would be okay if the GCSEs were being left alone until the change but it looks like just before they scrap them they are going to make GCSEs harder so he (and others his age) will still have GCSE on their CV so they will be unfairly compared grade wise to those before. Then on top of that they will be hit by A Level changes too.

It feels like they are being set up to fail before they even start the course. For various reasons I am probably over-reacting but I am absolutely raging about the unfairness of it all.

gazzalw - I don not think your reasons are robust enough to warrant the prevention of the long overdue changes.

What it will probably mean though is that the GCSE cohort who have over-achieved (and some of whom might not have done so well with more rigorous exams) will look down on those following on who have achieved more realistic grades in line with their true abilities....

As a parent, and a worker in the workplace I think the return of O Levels and CSEs is laudible. We have many recruits from teh Far East who are better educated; like it or not we need to benchmark with those countries - as they are our big competitors.

Change is inevitable in this modern world, along with its workplaces. I just hope that teachers are given the necessary resources and time. Equally, I hope that teachers will embrace the change.

It scares the shit out of me. I have a child entering year 7 this year and don't really want him caught up in a fuckaroo.

I was one of those poor teenagers who got caught in the last change over - I did a mix of o'levels, cses and the new GCSEs - it was a complete shambles and many of us didn't achieve the expected grades due to the confusion.

Many of us ended up resitting the core subjects later on in order to gain decent grades.

If they decide to change again it must be done properly and not muddled as before.

I wonder whether more schools will switch to the well-established IGCSE until it all settles down?

I feel for the kids who will be some of the first few years to go through this.

Its bound to be badly thought out and poorly prepared. The kids' results will be what suffers.

I can't decide. I'm a parent, a teacher and a Governor - and I sat O'Levels. (And Maths CSE, but let's not go there). Look at this though:

news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/20/newsid_2516000/2516847.stm