HL Deb 20 June 1984 vol 453 cc311-8

ELIZABETH HOUSE, YORK ROAD, LONDON SE1 7PH

TELEPHONE 01–928 9222

FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE

Miss I Whittaker OBE

Joint Chairman of the Joint Council of GCE and CSE Boards

Queen Anne Grammar School

Queen Anne's Road

York Y03 7AA

20 June 1984

Dear Miss Whittaker,

REFORM OF 16+ EXAMINATIONS

I announced in the House of Commons this afternoon that the Secretary of State for Wales and I had decided that, on certain important conditions which I mention below, a single system of examinations at 16+, based on national criteria, should be introduced as soon as is practicable. The new system is to take the place of existing O level, CSE and joint 16+ examinations in England and Wales and will be known as the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). In my statement to Parliament, a copy of which is enclosed, I said that the Government's main objectives in reforming 16+ examinations are to improve examination courses and to raise the standard of performance of all candidates. We believe that these objectives will most effectively be implemented in the context of a new system of GCSE examinations incorporating the features discussed below. The new system will be as set out in the Government's policy statement of November 1982, "Examinations at 16-Plus", with certain significant additions and modifications. The main features will be:

  1. (i) Examining groups. The GCSE would be administered by 5 groups of GCSE and CSE Boards—4 in England and one in Wales—as set out in paragraphs 9 to 12 and Annex A of the 1982 policy statement. In relation to the GCSE, no Board should act independently of the group to which it belongs.
  2. (ii) National criteria. All syllabuses and the procedures for assessment and grading will be based on the national criteria—both the subject-specific criteria wherever applicable and also the general criteria—which are to be approved by the holder of my office and the Secretary of State for Wales.
  3. (iii) Differentiation of assessment. The Secretary of State for Wales and I consider it essential that the national criteria should make the necessary provision for proper discrimination between candidates so that candidates across the ability range are given opportunities to show what they know and can do. Accordingly, the criteria will need to be explicit on the means by which such differentiation is to be secured, by requiring either differentiated papers or differentiation within papers in examinations for all subjects. The syllabuses also will need to specify how this differentiation is to be achieved. We note that requirements on these lines are consistent with the Joint Council's recent statement that some form of differentiation will be needed in every subject.
  4. (iv) Grade-related criteria. We likewise consider it essential that the national criteria, and syllabuses based upon them, should as soon as possible embody grade-related criteria. The Secondary Examinations Council has accepted the task of preparing drafts of these grade-related criteria and the associated assessment systems, in consultation with the Boards, for approval by the holder of my office and the Secretary of State for Wales.
  5. (v) Target group. The general criteria will need to make clear that the standards required of successful candidates in GCSE examinations should be no less exacting than those required in the existing 16+ examinations, which, taken together, were originally designed for the upper 60 per cent. of the ability range. The grading system for the GCSE should be such as to ensure that candidates, whatever their ability relative to other candidates, only obtain a grade if, and only if, they reach the standard required for the award of that grade as specifically defined in the grade-related criteria as they are developed.
  6. (vi) Certification and grading. Certificates will be awarded in a common form by each of the 5 examining groups. The present O level and CSE grades are to be replaced by a single, 7-point scale of grades. We propose that the new grades should be denoted by the letters A, B. C, D, E, F and G. The certificates will need to give prominence to the grades awarded. The GCE Boards will have responsibility within the examining groups for maintaining the standards of grades A to C; the CSE Boards will have a corresponding responsibility with regard to grades D to G. In the transitional period when grade-related criteria are available only for some subjects, the GCSE grades will be linked to O level grades A to C and CSE grades 2 to 5. Where grade-related criteria are in operation, no direct comparisons with earlier grades will be possible because the significance attached to the attainment of particular grades will be based on a different approach to assessment.
  7. (vii) Monitoring by secondary Examinations Council. The SEC will be responsible for monitoring all GSCE syllabuses, assessment and grading procedures, together with all other 313 examination courses offered to pupils during the years of compulsory schooling. It will be for the examining groups and the SEC to ensure that syllabuses, and procedures for assessment and grading, comply with the national criteria including, in due course, grade-related criteria, and to ensure comparability of standards between groups. The SEC will also be responsible, in consultation with the examining groups, for advising the holder of my office and the Secretary of State for Wales on the need for development of and changes in the national criteria, including the grade-related criteria.
As the Joint Council will be aware from earlier correspondence and discussion, the Secretary of State for Wales and I attach great importance to the points listed above: particularly to the inclusion in the national criteria of a requirement for differentiated assessment between or within papers in every subject and grade-related criteria as these come to be developed. We now invite the Boards to confirm their support for national criteria incorporating the elements described above. We wish also to explore with the SEC and the examining groups the possibility of introducing special GCSE Distinction Certificates for candidates who have achieved a specified number of higher grades in a defined range of subjects. These would be designed so as to encourage the ablest candidates in particular to pursue a suitably broad curriculum in the 4th and 5th years of secondary education. We shall bring forward proposals for discussion with the SEC, the Boards and others concerned in the education service and outside it. Given the Boards' support as indicated above, we propose that the new GCSE examinations should be introduced for courses beginning in Autumn 1986, with the first examinations following in summer 1988. Since all GCSE courses and examinations will be bass x1 on the national criteria it will be essential to complete as soon as practicable the final stages of preparing these criteria in a form which the Secretary of State for Wales and I can approve. We ask the Joint Council and the SEC to collaborate accordingly over these last stages so that final revisions are available before or by Christmas 1984. The Secondary Examinations Council intend to complete, in consultation with the boards, the first stage of work on grade-related criteria in 10 subjects by July/August 1985.

The detailed timetable would be as follows:

We hope that it may be possible to introduce grade-related criteria for the first subjects simultaneously with the GCSE examination: a final decision on this matter will depend on progress made. The Secretary of State for Wales and I are aware that the introduction of the new system will involve a great deal of work by the Examinations Boards and the SEC, in addition to all the invaluable work that has been undertaken already. We would wish this work to proceed as quickly as possible; and we ask the examining groups and the SEC to keep in close touch with the Department of Education and Science and the Welsh Office, whose officials stand ready to offer assistance as may be required. Since all GCSE courses and examinations will be conducted by the examining groups, the Secretary of State for Wales and I now ask the Boards to let us know as soon as possible the arrangements which have been made for the constitution and internal structure of each group as requested in paragraph 12 of the 1982 policy statement. It would be helpful if these arrangements could be made final as soon as practicable, and meanwhile if the groups could arrange to act together on all matters relating to the GCSE from September this year. Copies of this letter are being sent to the Chairman of the Secondary Examinations Council, the Chairmen of all GCE and CSE Boards, and the Chairmen of the Education Committees of the local authority associations. The letter will also be published by circulation in Hansard.

Yours sincerely,

(signed) Keith Joseph.

Baroness David

My Lords, I thank, the Minister for repeating the Statement. I must say at once that we welcome that the decision has been taken at last. The educational world has been waiting for it for some time. The Waddell steering group recommending a single exam at 16-plus reported in July 1978, and proposed that the exam should start in 1983. So, in fact, five years will have been wasted before we have the first of this variety. We also welcome the fact that there is to be a single system. The double one was divisive. Employers did not pay much attention to CSE and the double system was very wasteful of resources.

Paragraph 3 says that, The GCSE will be a system of examinations, not a single examination". I take that to mean that there will be examinations in various subjects and that those need not necessarily be taken at the same time. I should be glad to know whether that is the correct explanation. Can the Minister explain why the old GCE boards are to be retained when the O-level exam is being abolished? Is this a smokescreen for keeping the O-level exam under another name?

We are glad that there is to be a single grading system. That is good, but can the Minister explain (this appears in paragraph 3 on page 2 of the Statement) why grades A to C will be clearly distinguished from grades D to G— in that, within the examining groups, sole responsibility for setting and maintaining their standards will rest with the GCE Boards"? I take it that I am correct in thinking that there is to be a single certificate. I should also like to ask what is the purpose of introducing distinction certificates? Is it to be like the old matriculation certificate and is this put in as a sop to the elitist and the Right wing?

My final question is, as this examination will cover the top 60 per cent. of the school population, as do the present O-level and CSE exams, what about the other 40 per cent? I understood from the Secretary of State's speech in Sheffield that he wished 80 per cent. of children to reach the level of CSE grade 4. We should like 100 per cent. of children to be covered by some sort of assessment, profile, teacher or continuous assessment, or whatever. Could we please have a comment on that?

Lord Kilmarnock

My Lords, we on these Benches would also like to thank the noble Earl for repeating this extremely important statement. We welcome the final decision to merge the GCE and CSE examinations after years of indecision. It was always absurd that they partly overlapped but that the CSE was always held in so much lower esteem. I have one or two questions that I should like to ask the noble Earl. In the first place, in reference to paragraph 3 relating to the proposed distinction system for grades A to C, we have nothing against excellence but is this really a good idea? Does this mean that the certificates will be gold-edged as opposed to plain ones for the other grades? If so, is it a good idea to introduce something which is obviously divisive. Is it not vital to pull up the bottom 40 per cent. in our education system, those who at present come out with only one CSE grade or none? Is it not important to encourage them?

Like the noble Baroness, Lady David, I was also slightly confused about the distinction certificates proposed in paragraph 4 as a reward for following broad and balanced courses. I wonder whether the noble Earl could give us the rationale behind that. It is a good thing, but I wondered why it requires particular distinction certificates.

Can the noble Earl tell us if the certificate of prevocational education, the CPVE for 16-year-olds wanting to follow a more vocational stream, will be introduced at the same time with the same timetable? Can he also tell us whether the new combined examination system will be open to those on technical and vocational educational initiatives?

Finally, would the noble Earl not agree that children and their parents should not be discouraged from taking advantage of these new arrangements because of financial barriers? Will the Government not take another look at the possibility of introducing educational maintenance allowances for children over 16? As there is lower than expected take-up on the Youth Training Scheme, do the Government not have a bit of elbow room here?

The Earl of Swinton

My Lords, I am grateful to both the noble Baroness, Lady David, and the noble Lord, Lord Kilmarnock, for the way they have received this Statement today. They are both pleased that it is to be a single system rather than a series of different systems.

The first point that the noble Baroness Lady David, made was that this has been a long time coming and this has been a waste of time. I strongly reject that. Several very important anxieties needed to be addressed and problems had to be solved before a final decision could proceed. We have dealt with the anxieties and solved the problems by building into the new system the four essential features of fewer examining groups, national criteria, differentiated papers or questions in all subjects, and grade-related criteria. I would not say that we had wasted time. The noble Baroness also suggested that there was some sort of smokescreen about of all of this. She and the noble Lord, Lord Kilmarnock; both asked very much the same questions and I will endeavour to answer them. I think it was the noble Baroness, Lady David, who asked about the retention of the GCE boards. They will be retained because they will need to ensure that syllabuses, examinations and grade boundaries for Grades A, B and C are such as to maintain standards no lower than those which now apply for the corresponding O-level grades.

The noble Baroness and also, I think, the noble Lord, Lord Kilmarnock, asked what form the proposed GCSE distinction certificate will take. We shall be considering specific proposals to put to the Secondary Examinations Council and the examining groups. The idea will be to award special distinction certificates to candidates who achieve a specified number of higher grades in a defined range of subjects. The subjects will be chosen so as to encourage the ablest candidates in particular to pursue a suitably broad curriculum in the fourth and fifth years of secondary education. They will provide a useful additional goal for the more able candidates. I think the noble Baroness also asked whether this was just for the top 60 per cent. of children. The new system when fully implemented will be designed for all candidates whatever their relative ability who are able to reach the standards required for the award of particular grades. There is no question of lowering grade standards in order to accommodate 80 per cent. to 90 per cent. of pupils. That would defeat the whole object, which is to raise standards.

What we want to see is the progressive raising of standards, helped by the reforms announced today, such that 80 per cent. to 90 per cent. of 16-year-olds will be brought up to the levels of performance currently associated with the average. If we are successful in this, the numbers of candidates who obtained graded results in the new examinations will naturally be substantially greater than at present.

The noble Lord, Lord Kilmarnock, asked about how the new grades will compare with existing O-level and CSE grades. Until such time as grade-related criteria are introduced, GCSE grades A to C will be linked to O-level grades A to C and GCSE grades D to G will be linked to CSE grades 2 to 5. The policy statement of 1982 illustrates relationships on page 6 with a simple diagram. After the introduction of grade-related criteria, no direct comparisons with earlier grades will be possible because the attainment of particular grades will be based on a different approach and assessment.

I think he also asked whether it was going to be a single certificate. The answer is yes, but not a single exam. There will be differentiated papers and questions. Both the GCE boards and the CSE boards will retain their separate identities. They are working together. The GCE boards will be responsible for A-levels, too. Finally he asked about the introduction of the CPVE. No, my Lords, that will be introduced next year, ahead of the new 16-plus exam. I do not think that the Government have any intention of looking again at the question of grants for school children.

4.35 p.m.

Lord Beloff

My Lords, as the representative of elitist and Right-wing education, or (as I would prefer it) as the representative of those who care about educational standards, I am gratified that the Statement goes a long way to meet the anxieties which the National Council of Educational Standards and others have expressed about some of the original plans for amalgamating the two examinations. It is an extremely complicated Statement. There is a great deal in it besides the actual re-casting of the examination system. I think it would be improper and of little use to comment until one has had time to digest it. However, I should like to ask just one question about the distinction certificate. Am I to assume that this is to meet the often-voiced criticism that English secondary education does not give a sufficiently broad acquaintance with both the natural sciences and the humanities, and that the idea of such a distinction is to ensure that there is encouragement for the ablest children to continue to bridge that gap between the two cultures at least until the age of 16?

The Earl of Swinton

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend. I seem to have partly pleased all sorts of people today on all sides of the education field. That must be something unique, I think. I think that basically the noble Lord is right in the question that he asked. I said in an earlier answer, the idea would be to award special distinction to those candidates who achieve a specified number of higher grades in a defined range of subjects. It would encourage, as it were, a broad baseline for the type of children which he mentioned.

Lord Mulley

My Lords, while the noble Earl is entitled to his opinion that five years was not a waste of time, may I say that surely he will not disagree that it was an extraordinarily long time, and not least in view of the work that had gone in to the Secretary of State's predecessors. There is a great deal of reference to the differential papers, and for reasons which escape me some special certificate for grades A to C. I thought that the mere grading recorded on the certificate a sufficient distinction between the accomplishments of one candidate against another. Is it to be a single examination at the end of the day? Also, can he give us some idea of what the reaction of the universities is likely to be; because, although it is the A-levels which count for university entrance, because the A-level results are not usually available when the question of interviews arise, the O-level performance is often crucially important in candidates getting an interview, and the rest. It seems from the Statement—and admittedly we have to study it—rather confusing. Is it intended to get something rather fuller? Where there are references in the other place to documents made available in the Vote Office, will they be made available to us in the Printed Paper Office?

The Earl of Swinton

My Lords, in answer to the last part of Lord Mulley's, supplementary question, the answer is, "yes". He said that five years is a long time. Compared with what, my Lords? How long is a piece of string? He also asked about the effect on the universities. The Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals, and the Standing Conference on University Entrance have both declared their readiness to follow a single system based on national criteria. To make it absolutely clear, I must point out again I think that it is not a single exam; it is a single system.

Lord Somers

My Lords, the noble Lord has said something about specially advanced examinations. I did not catch quite what he said. Will this take the place of the present A-level, and will it be a separate exam?

The Earl of Swinton

No, my Lords, the A-level will stay as it is. This is taking the place of the GCE and the CSE.

Lord Taylor of Blackburn

My Lords, I wish to thank the noble Earl for repeating the Statement. Going on the dating, it is exactly three years to the day that I gave evidence before the Select Committee in another place on this subject. Briefly going through the evidence a moment ago, after what the noble Earl had said, I am very pleased that a lot of the points I suggested at that time have been accepted. I welcome this not completely wholeheartedly; but I welcome it because it is based upon the international baccalaureate which is accepted by most of the European countries. Therefore, I think it would be a good thing to be more in line with our colleagues on the other side of the Channel.

I feel that it will also be good for British universities because then there will not be the difficulties that we have found in the past of entrants into universities having different examinations throughout the world. I think that will be good. Something which I think is vital that I should like to press on the Minister is that industry and commerce must be made well aware of the implications of this examination. If he does that and people give it time to settle down, it will be a good thing for the coming generations in this country.

The Earl of Swinton

My Lords. I find myself in a difficulty because I welcome very much what the noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Blackburn, has said; but, on the other hand, I should wear another hat and point out that a Statement is a time for questions for information and not to start a debate. Perhaps he is slightly out of order in that. But, in fact, he was so full of praise that I thank him very much for what he said.

Lord Maude of Stratford-Upon-Avon

My Lords, is my noble friend aware that this Statement will be welcomed by all those who wish educational standards over the whole range to be improved? Whereas the existing system has never given any inducement to the raising of standards generally—and indeed it has been virtually impossible for employers or parents to know what the achievement of a particular grade actually indicates in terms of standards—this at last provides some objective criteria by which an improvement of standards not only can be measured but encouraged.

The Earl of Swinton

My Lords, I am very grateful to my noble friend for saying that; I would agree wholeheartedly.

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