After nearly 100 years of
tinkering with qualifications we're back to where we started,
writes Donald Hirsch
For over half a century, education ministers have been
promising to abolish the sharp divide between those who
succeed and fail at 16: the "sheep and goats" of our education
system. Optimists believed that the Tomlinson report would
finally bring this about. The white paper's rejection of
fundamental change to the qualifications system not only
shirks a historic opportunity to move forward in this
direction, but in a sense takes us back to where we started.
Between 1918 and 1950, the "gold standard" of secondary
education was the Schools Certificate, gained by a small
minority of 16-year-olds who passed exams in at least five
subjects including English, a foreign language and either
mathematics or science. The introduction of O-levels in 1951
was supposed to make the system more flexible and to widen the
numbers getting some sort of qualification. Yet, in practice,
five O-level passes, including English, continued to be
recognised as the basic mark of success.
Nor did this recognised standard disappear when GCSEs
supposedly abolished the pass-fail divide from 1988: we simply
started talking about five grade Cs or above, again as an
equivalent of what came before.
Now the white paper has announced that those getting five
A*-C grades, including English and maths, will get more formal
recognition for this achievement with a "general (GCSE)
diploma". This is a return to the Schools Certificate in all
but name.
Of course, today this qualification will have a different
meaning, in a vastly changed educational landscape, than it
had in 1950. The alternative to gaining it is certainly not
complete educational failure.
The various proposed vocationally-orientated diplomas are
in themselves commendable, and students receiving them will
deserve the recognition of achievement that these
qualifications award.
But what does it say to employers, students and parents
when at the same time as announcing an alternative means of
certifying success, the Government re-asserts the link between
traditional qualifications and educational excellence? The
white paper puts emphasis on ensuring that league tables give
even greater prominence to the number getting five GCSEs, by
saying that these must now include English and maths and that
these subjects will be examined more rigorously. This is an
odd technique for producing parity of esteem. The retention of
a 16-plus qualification, essentially making the same divisions
as a qualification invented in 1918, makes us laughably at
odds with other European countries, who have long since
abolished or downgraded qualifications at 16 where they had
them.
This makes sense when most people are staying in education
at least to 18, making the concept of a "leaver's certificate"
before that age redundant.
Even though everywhere there remain status distinctions
between academic and vocational streams in practice, these are
not typically as pronounced in other countries as in the UK
during the final years of secondary education. Without the
distortion of our stark sheep-and-goats division at 16, a
range of educational options at upper secondary level is able
to develop along more of a continuum. This makes it easier for
each student to find a suitable pathway to suit their
preferences and abilities, without the fear of being labelled
second-rate because of a failure to pass an academic hurdle in
Year 11.
One of the most important changes since 1950 is the huge
increase in the number of "sheep" compared to "goats" in our
system: over half now get five GCSEs at A*-C, compared to the
small minority gaining the Schools Certificate. Unfortunately
the emergence of a larger, well-educated middle class makes
the lack of esteemed qualifications for those left behind the
more damaging.
In international terms, the UK stands out as having one of
the highest proportions of young people going to university,
but also one of the highest leaving education before age 17.
Other countries are much better at keeping the mass of
children in education until the end of secondary school,
leaving with something positive to show for it.
Next year it will be 75 years since Ramsay MacDonald took
us off the real gold standard because, far from upholding
British quality, it was proving inflexible and doing our
country more harm than good. What a pity that ministers do not
have the courage to celebrate that anniversary by abandoning
the educational equivalent.
Donald Hirsch is an international consultant on education
policy
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