Why do we need a secretary of state for education? Now a U-turn over abolishing GCSEs
Originally posted by Peter Inson at 06:48, February 7 2013
For a quarter of a century state schools in the UK have had to live with this sort of nonsense – since a Tory government took direct control of these matters.
Had teachers insisted on retaining a choice of assessent systems to use we might now have a better idea of which approaches to assessment best suited children, rather than politicians. Luckily there are pockets of choice and independence still – International GCSEs and O-levels even, and Cambridge University says that it will not abandon AS-levels as a means of assessing a student’s potential.
Teachers and parents now know what to expect from a government of any colour that tries to micro-manage schools. If they continue to serve the purposes of government rather than children, they know what to expect – continuing waste, uncertainty and frustration.