Just when everyone thought Michael Gove couldn’t make
anymore stupid and thoughtless remarks a document was leaked last night that
shows he is planning to scrap GCSE’s, introduced by the Thatcher government in
1986, and bring back the old O-Level system. The system would work by having O-Levels
for those subjects Mr Gove has decided are the most important: Maths, Chemistry,
Biology, Physics, English, Geography and History. For ‘less academic’ students there
will be Certificates of Secondary Education, or CSE’s. Thus the exam system of
the old Grammar School and Secondary Modern system will be reinstated if Mr
Gove has his way.
But that system doesn’t work. Thatcher’s Conservative
Government understood that people were angry that at the age of 14 their
Children were grouped into either an academic elite or those who were ‘less
academic’ and thus condemned to sit exams that were seen as inferior. In the
GCSE system all students sit the same exam. Yes students get different grades
but they are all given the same opportunity to succeed and try to achieve the
top grades. The O-Level system condemns children at 14 and makes the choice for
them of where their life will go. Mr Gove does not have the right nor the power
to choose the fate of a generation of children.
Under the planned system those subjects not offered at O-Level
would still be offered at GCSE. This would essentially mean all subjects
Michael Gove does not see as important would be downgraded to a lesser
qualification. Michael Gove would be condemning all arts based subjects and all
students whose ability lies outside of the main academic subjects. Students who
had qualifications in Art, Music, Drama and Economics would be seen as a second
class student compared to a student who had studied Geography and Biology. How
is this fair? Western Civilization is built upon the blending of all areas of
knowledge; Economics relies on Maths, Drama can comment on History, Political
ideas can be spread through knowledge of English. If the government starts
deciding which areas of academia are important and which aren’t then the
government will have the power to cripple western civilization, destroying in a
few years the product of thousands of years.
Thatcher introduced the GCSE system because people said the
O-Level system was unfair and failing students, widening the social divide and
the wealth gap. Maybe the GCSE system does need rethinking. Personally, as
someone who completed their GCSE’s last year, I find the fact that there are so
many Exam Boards confusing and have come to believe that the education of
students is being turned into a business venture for Exam Boards. But that doesn’t
mean GCSE’s should be scrapped. Maybe we do need to look into the GCSE system
and have an inquiry into how they could be improved, but that doesn’t mean we
should scrap them and go back to a system that was seen as outdated half a
century ago. When your computer starts to work a little slower, you don’t say “Oh
well time to go back to my abacus”. The real intentions of Mr Gove are to
return education to the system he grew up in. But Michael Gove went to a
private school; he lived in a world of money and power, whilst around the
country children just as old as him were being condemned as ‘less academic’.
Rethinking the system does not mean talking a jump back into the past.
This recent scandal has just reinforced why Michael Gove is
perhaps the worst education secretary the UK has ever seen. Margaret Thatcher
was hated in the 1970’s as she was “Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher”, the
education secretary who stopped over sevens from receiving free milk. If
Michael Gove gets his way he will be remembered as the education secretary who
damned a generation of children and destroyed their futures.
No comments:
Post a Comment