Not nearly radical enough, Mr Gove

Much has been said about Michael Gove’s apparent change of heart over his plans to introduce English Baccalaureate Certificates.

However, terminal examinations still remain a part of planned GCSE reforms and we must ask what merit there would be in introducing a change guaranteed to reduce the number of students achieving success – as a total reliance on a single end-of-course examination would inevitably do.

We have a long British tradition – including the 11-plus – of designing systems in such a way as to label youngsters as failures as early as possible. This could well contribute to the extension of that.

But we must not lose sight of the fact that there is a very real issue to be addressed at GCSE, one which the secretary of state has certainly recognised. In an interview with Radio 4 on the day he announced his u-turn, Mr Gove referred to, “too much assessment and too little learning”. Quite right! Assessment in the UK has got way out of hand. This is an issue any truly radical secretary of state must address.