GCSEs no longer being 'scrapped'

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Michael Gove and the schools minister David Laws are to press ahead with major reforms to GCSEs as early as 2015, even though the education secretary has been forced to beat a retreat on renaming the exams and introducing a single examination board.


Gove made the decision to pull back from ditching GCSEs and creating an English Baccalaureate Certificate (EBC) after he was warned some exam boards would go bankrupt and then sue the Department for Education for breaching EU procurement rules. That might have delayed his shakeup of the exam system until 2018.


As he announced his rethink, Gove was accused of being forced into a humiliating U-turn, and the normally irrepressible education secretary admitted he had tried to cross "a bridge too far".

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/...orms-from-2015 ^^
http://www.channel4.com/news/gove-gc...-abandon-plans = other one.

This idea was proposed by the same guy who thought teacher's jobs were too easy. Good to see this has happened.

Whether you agree with Gove or not over GCSEs (and I do), you have to admit that the fact that our elected government is being barred from changing something so simple as senior school level exams by the European Union is out of order.

Another demonstration of just how inept our Government now is at the hands of what is essentially a foreign power.

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Originally Posted by -:Undertaker:-

Whether you agree with Gove or not over GCSEs (and I do), you have to admit that the fact that our elected government is being barred from changing something so simple as senior school level exams by the European Union is out of order.

Another demonstration of just how inept our Government now is at the hands of what is essentially a foreign power.

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Well the article says that some exam boards would go bankrupt, and that has nothing to do with the EU.

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Originally Posted by Ardemax

Well the article says that some exam boards would go bankrupt, and that has nothing to do with the EU.

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It does when EU rules are involved...

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Gove made the decision to pull back from ditching GCSEs and creating an English Baccalaureate Certificate (EBC) after he was warned some exam boards would go bankrupt and then sue the Department for Education for breaching EU procurement rules

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Originally Posted by -:Undertaker:-

It does when EU rules are involved...

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Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but regardless of whether the exam boards sue or not, they would still be at risk of bankruptcy if these plans went ahead?

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Originally Posted by Ardemax

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but regardless of whether the exam boards sue or not, they would still be at risk of bankruptcy if these plans went ahead?

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Don't exactly see why thats such a bad thing if i'm honest, if certain exam boards aren't needed then the state shouldn't be funding them. Indeed, given our debt it's an ideal area to have cutbacks in - a bonus of the Gove GCSE plan in my eyes. :P

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Originally Posted by -:Undertaker:-

Don't exactly see why thats such a bad thing if i'm honest, if certain exam boards aren't needed then the state shouldn't be funding them. Indeed, given our debt it's an ideal area to have cutbacks in - a bonus of the Gove GCSE plan in my eyes. :P

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Because if, for example, the WJEC goes bust then that will cause a lot of problems for a lot of people.

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Originally Posted by Ardemax

Because if, for example, the WJEC goes bust then that will cause a lot of problems for a lot of people.

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So don't make any cuts anywhere then is essentially what you're arguing.

With a spiraling debt I think that's madness, but there you go. The state isn't a charity, if the jobs aren't needed then they ought to be cut.

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Originally Posted by -:Undertaker:-

So don't make any cuts anywhere then is essentially what you're arguing.

With a spiraling debt I think that's madness, but there you go. The state isn't a charity, if the jobs aren't needed then they ought to be cut.

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Not what I'm arguing at all. I'm giving one example where jobs are most certainly needed.

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Originally Posted by Ardemax

Not what I'm arguing at all. I'm giving one example where jobs are most certainly needed.

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Not if they are no longer required under a new examination system. As these jobs are funded by the state, a state that is creaking under the massive amount of debt we've amassed, it's an ideal area to cut public sector jobs in as opposed to say street cleaners.

We certainly don't need anymore state funded public sector jobs, we need many less and soon.