flatpackhamster* I do have a particular stance but I still wanted to watch a balanced debate. There was no one on the panel who came close to sharing my views - it began from a starting point that we all somehow 'know' that there is something wrong with GCSEs. We don't.
wordfactory Which teachers and pupils have you spoken to about this? Those in my school certainly are not in agreement about this. What is 'proper proficiency' and how do you know that GCSEs do not provide the opportunity to show it?
Why on earth would reintroducing learning by rote and terminal examinations that test little more than memory be the best way to allow pupils to acheive? What is to happen to the many for whom this proposed system will not work?
Teachers have already worked hard to implement major changes to the curriculum brought in two years ago. Now all that work, planning and resources are to be thrown away to facilitate Gove's wet-dream of a 1950s style education for all becoming a reality.
I am so sick of everyone stating as fact the idea that exams have been dumbed-down. Teachers have been placed under enourmous pressure in recent years to improve results. Our school was threatened with closure 3 years ago so, of course, we all worked even harder than we were already to improve results.
But, oh no, the higher pass-rate can't be down to students' and teachers' work. It must be due to 'dumbing-down'.
Throughout history people of a certain age have always idealised the past ? their 'day? when everything was so much better than it is now. It is mostly bollocks. My teachers (I am 36 so among the first few cohorts of GCSE-sitters) were always telling us that the new GCSEs required us to know less but understand, interpret and evaluate more. They seemed to see them as harder than the old-style O-Levels.