GCE debate rages as study shows UK kids' maths woes
Study findings come amid education secretary's 'idea' to reinstate O levels
BY JONATHAN EYAL
EUROPE CORRESPONDENT
LONDON - English children are half as likely to attain top maths grades in international tests as their peers in other developed countries, a study by a British educational charity shows.
The Sutton Trust used data from the Programme for International Student Assessment which is administered by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a grouping of wealthy nations.
It found that only 1.7 per cent of English children achieved the highest level in maths, half the OECD average, and well below the 4.6 per cent of children in Germany or the 7.8 per cent in Switzerland and South Korea. The comparable figure for Singapore was 15.6 per cent last year. In educational terms, England ranks 26 out of 34 OECD countries.
The Sutton Trust's report comes at a sensitive time, just as the British government is embroiled in a passionate debate about the need to reform the country's school exams. And going by the discussions, ideology and social distinctions appear to be precluding any practical outcome.
The biggest controversy is over the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exams which British students sit at the age of 16. Government papers recently leaked to the media suggest that Education Secretary Michael Gove wants to abolish the GCSE and reinstate the O-level examinations, which operated until the late 1980s and are still used in many English-speaking nations.
In theory, the current system is flourishing. Last year's GCSE passes rose for the 23rd year in a row, with three times as many students gaining top grades compared with those in 1988, when the exams started. But in every single international test, British students fared worse than their counterparts in many developed nations.
Critics of the current system claim that the only explanation for this discrepancy is that GCSE exams are getting easier.
The reason for this is GCSE papers are set by five different exam boards which are commercial enterprises; they make money from the marking and textbooks they endorse. Schools tend to pick boards where pass rates are highest, so the result is "a race to the bottom", as Mr Gove calls it.
Recent studies back this. A survey by Ofqual, the national regulator, found GCSE exams are now less taxing. The British Academy, in a separate study, had the same conclusion: The anomalies "in a system fraught with options for alternative ways of doing things is producing an unfair outcome".
Mr Gove denies making any decision; the documents leaked represent "various ideas", he says. But he uses the example of Singapore to reject the contention that the problem is one of resources. Singapore spent 3.3 per cent of its gross domestic product on education in 2010, half of what Britain did. But the results are incomparably better in part as, Mr Gove suggests, most Singaporeans sit an O-level exam. Britain requires "explicitly harder examinations".
The snag is that a return of the O levels requires separate arrangements for students who are incapable of sitting them but need a document attesting to the completion of school.
In the past, this was the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) which was associated with failure and class distinctions, since those who performed badly were also the poorest in society.
Mr Gove points out that there is no reason why the CSE should return with the O levels.
Still, the stigma associated with the old structure means that any reform encounters fierce opposition. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who leads the Liberal Democrats, has said he is "very, very hostile" to the change.
And teachers claim the current system is the only one able to ensure social mobility. Mr Chris Keates, who runs the teaching union NASUWT, argues that introducing any new exams will "brand individual young people for life" according to social classes.
But the evidence shows upholding a rigorous exam curriculum increases social mobility and attendance at leading universities.
When Britain had the O levels, up to 70 per cent of students gaining places at Oxford and Cambridge universities came from state schools, where poorer children study. But, since the GCSE system was introduced, the proportion has fallen to 50 per cent.
Top of the news. The Straits Times, Monday, July 2012, Pg A2