GCSEs

What are GCSEs?

GCSE stands for General Certificate of Secondary Education.

GCSE examinations are taken by most pupils at the end of compulsory school education (year 11) at age 16 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. GCSE provides a uniform framework for assessment, with all candidates in all subjects graded from A* to G (with U being the result given to those whose papers are "ungraded"). Scotland has a different system altogether, with examinations called Standard grades, Higher grades and Advanced Higher grades, which are taken at different ages. Taking GCSEs is not compulsory, and it is up to schools whether to enter pupils for examinations.

There are around 50 different GCSE subjects, alongside 14 Vocational GCSEs which have recently been introduced to replace Part 1 GNVQs (General National Vocational Qualifications). Each GCSE subject is assessed by formal examinations or by coursework, or by a combination of the two.

GCSE represents Key Stage 4 of the National Curriculum, and although GCSE provides a uniform framework of assessment, in fact it represents two "levels" of the National Qualifications Framework (Levels 1 and 2). Grades A to C are Level 2 (intermediate) qualifications, while grades D to G are Level 1 (foundation) qualifications.

Depending on their expected grades, pupils in certain subjects will be entered for the "higher" or the "foundation" tier GCSE exams. Pupils expected to achieve grades A to D take the higher tier and can achieve any grade; pupils taking the foundation tier can only achieve grade C or below. Most subjects have these two tiers, but some (art, music, physical education and history) have none, while mathematics has three.

GCSE syllabuses are set, examinations administered and certificates awarded by a number of "awarding bodies" or Examination Boards (AQA, EDEXCEL, OCR and the Welsh Joint Education Committee). The awarding bodies are regulated and scrutinised by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

The awarding bodies decide on a "Common Timetable" each year, so as to co-ordinate the scheduling of examinations. The Common Timetable usually runs from late May to late June each year. Arrangements for resits are made individually by each body.

Background

GCSEs were introduced in 1986, replacing the previous O Level and CSE systems by merging them together.

General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level examinations (O Levels) had existed since the early 1950s, but were only available in grammar schools and private schools, and as such were only taken by the top 20 per cent of the school population by academic ability. The majority of school pupils, who attended secondary modern schools, left without any formal qualifications.

The mid-1960s saw the introduction of the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) as a qualification available to all, with its grade 1 equivalent to grades C and above at O Level, and its grade 4 pitched as the "average" attainment for the age group.

However, throughout its life, the CSE qualification was seen as inferior to O Level. It was administered on a regional basis, while O and A Levels were administered by examination boards with links to universities. Part of the CSE system was assessed within schools, which generated criticisms of low standards. Furthermore, the existence of two not-quite parallel systems undermined public and employer understanding of the nature and value of qualifications.

Throughout the 1970s, there was considerable pressure to merge the systems - particularly since the raising of the age of compulsory education to 16 considerably increased the number of pupils in a position to obtain qualifications. Under the Callaghan Labour government, Education Secretary Shirley Williams (now Baroness Williams of Crosby) took the political decision to proceed with a merged "GCSE" system, but the election of the Conservatives in 1979 postponed any action for several years.

In 1984, Conservative Education Secretary Sir Keith Joseph decided to proceed with a merger, on the premises that the new qualifications should be based on general and subject-specific criteria approved by himself; that the O Level exam boards should take responsibility for carrying forward the O Level A to C grade standards into the new scale, while the CSE boards should do the same for grades D to G, which were to be based on CSE grades 2 to 5 respectively; and that most subjects should be examined through tiered papers focusing on different parts of the grade scale, ensuring that each grade reflected "positive achievement" on appropriate tasks, rather than degrees of failure.

The first GCSE courses began in 1986, and the first examinations were taken in 1988. The inclusion of coursework in GCSE assessments was a novel innovation, which many teachers at the time regarded with scepticism. The acceptable level of coursework in courses was capped by the School Examinations and Assessment Council (a predecessor of the QCA) in 1991.

Growing concern about the relevance of academic studies and a lack of technical skills in young people led in 2002 to the introduction of Vocational GCSEs. Despite the vocational training system having only been overhauled as recently as 1994, with the introduction of GNVQs, the Government decided that low take-up and poor perception of courses relative to GCSE merited action comparable to that taken with regard to O Level and CSE in the 1980s.

In 2007, the overall A* - C pass rate for all UK entries increased from 62.4 per cent to 63.3 per cent, with one in five students achieving the highest A grade. The uptake of modern languages continued to decline, however, which was widely regarded as a symptom of removing these subjects from the complusory curriculum in 2004.

Controversies

Although the government remains committed to the GCSE examination system, recent years have seen growing numbers questioning its continued relevance.

Most employers and educational institutions do not in fact regard grades A to G as a pass, but only grades A to C. This situation, like that which was replaced under O Levels and CSEs, leaves many pupils with qualifications of questionable value. Indeed, it is argued in some quarters that the single grade scale for GCSE and the requirement for all subjects to be comparable in terms of grades unfairly favours academically able children, without recognising different aptitudes. The recent move towards Vocational GCSEs aims to address this, ironically by reintroducing some of the complexity that GCSEs initially eliminated.

At the other end of the scale, headteachers in many independent and grammar schools complain that GCSEs do not stretch their more able pupils. "It's like Boy Scouts collecting badges. One has to ask what the educational value of it is", the headmaster of Eton, Tony Little, complained in August 2003, announcing that from 2004, Eton students will bypass GCSE altogether and go straight to AS Level.

Perhaps the most controversial issue relating to GCSE is the longstanding contention that exams are too easy and are getting easier - a claim given credence by the fact that overall pass rates have increased every year since GCSEs were introduced.

Each year's exam results are followed by a public and media allegations that the "absolute standard" which GCSE grades are intended to represent (in contrast to the "quota" grading system of the previous exam systems) is being degraded. The DfES and most teachers maintain that rising pass rates are consequences of improving teaching methods, but opponents disagree, claiming that it is possible to pass GCSE exams without reaching many basic levels of educational and vocational attainment.

With more and more pupils staying in education after 16, the value of exams at that age is increasingly questioned. The Tomlinson Review was charged in 2003 with developing a comprehensive framework for 14 to 19 education, which has suggested in its interim report that there should be a single diploma for the whole for this stage of education. The Review's final report is expected in late 2004, and the position of GCSE within it remains to be seen.

Statistics

5,733,487 GCSE examinations were sat in 2003, 1.3 per cent more than in 2002

Grades A and A* accounted for 16.7 per cent of the total pass grades in 2003

The 2003 A-C pass rate was 58.1 per cent in 2003 (57.9 per cent in 2002)

2003 saw a 7.9 per cent increase in GCSE entries for Religious Studies (to around 132,000), and a 23.6 per cent increase in entries for Business Studies (to around 125,000)

Statistics: (Source: DfES, August 2003)

Quotes

"The system we propose will be tougher, but clearer and fairer. It will be more intelligible to users, better than O Levels, and better than CSE. It will stretch the able more and stretch the average more."

Sir Keith Joseph MP, Conservative Education Secretary, June 1984

"GCSEs remain a vital indication of young people's progress"

Margaret Hodge MP, then Education Minister, August 2002

"For pupils taking the exam, if A* to C is within reach it's worth working hard to achieve them because it opens up doors and there are rungs up the ladder to university. But if you can only achieve F and G you wonder what the incentive is. There is a whole range of abilities that aren't reflected by GCSE. At the moment there aren't any alternatives in the school system."

Professor Alan Smithers, Liverpool University, quoted in the Guardian newspaper, August 2003