[Steerforth]

I do think that GCSE's need changing and tweaking here and there, and the idea of one national exam board sounds very appealing, but a total overhaul of the entire system just sounds crazy! Calling them O-levels also seems strange - is Gove looking to relate to the middle-age voting population?

Exams and content should be constantly evolving to match the skills needed in life. Multiple exam boards have led to grade inflation, however having one exam board would stop this, as they could simply set the grade boundaries so that a set percentage got A* etc.

[Safiya122]

I feel sorry for my five year old brother.

[Sean9001]

(Original post by mrshinyshoes)
you do realise the first exams will the 2020 at the earliest?

I thought the plan was for next year to be the last sitting GCSEs, and as of 2014 the new exams would be rolled out.

Edit: first teaching 2014, first exams 2016.

[epic9784]

Im truly sick of these politicians mixing in with education as if they know everything by making huge reforms, in actual fact there backdated 30 years ago when they where in education.
Technology and life has changed drastically making it easier for students. Its due to our luck and circumstance we can access the internet for example and learn.
Its not GCSE getting easier, its more like students are becoming more smarter over the years. Going back to o-level will ruin everything, destroying the education system.

[Paramore<3]

Ridiculous. The Conservatives were the ones to abolish O-levels in favour of GCSEs to raise standards, now they are doing the exact opposite after they believe standards have fallen.

Introducing a two-tier system (O-levels and CSEs) will do nothing to improve morale or grades. If it's not enough to make the current and past GCSE students feel as if they have worked for a now outdated qualification, making the 'less academic' do a completely different exam is not going to make anything better.

The endless focus on terminal exams and the English Baccalaureate is testament to how out of touch these politicians are. I would quite like to see them sit down and study for 11 exams that will happen over the space of one exam season, and potentially set the course for the rest of your educational career. I'm not saying GCSEs are perfect, but why overhaul the entire system? Making changes to curriculum, or way things are taught would have sufficed.

But this doesn't mean returning to 3 hour terminal exams, and dictating that you must have studied certain subjects to be awarded another qualification.
It just adds another tier to an increasingly elitist education system.

What about those that thrive at long-term projects and controlled assessment-type tasks? What about the new training teachers will have to undergo?

/rant. Sorry, I just can't stick them fiddling with exams non-stop!

[Krebs]

(Original post by greenmind)
Does this mean that the GCSE's I've just done be worth nothing now??

No? Why should they be worth nothing?

[recurring500]

Making secondary education a whole lot harder is for the better!

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/show....php?t=2038278

[Emrys141]

A lot of adults commenting on the news article on Yahoo about this (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/return-o-le...003230047.html) are saying things like "A lot of of kids are going to discover they're not as smart as they were conned into believing they were." because GCSE's are really easy apparently. I'd hate to think that any work I did was pointless and easy compared to O Levels.

[starienight]

does anyone know if that would make our gcse's worthless compared to the new O levels then?

[Theoneoranro]

(Original post by greenmind)
I just can't help thinking that an employer would rather employ somebody who has the more 'superior' and 'hard earned' O-levels rather than the 'easy' and much more 'inferior' GCSEs The government is making GCSEs sound like they are worthless, and yes maybe the standard has fallen but I think it would've been better if they'd made these changes to GCSEs rather than bringing in a whole new system which devalues the old.

I'm pretty sure when you have a degree employers don't look at GCSE's?

[tomaird]

I'm still unsure about the changes but I suppose they are a good thing really. Anyway, for most of us it won't be a problem as we'll be well into/finished university by the time they come into affect!

[mrshinyshoes]

(Original post by Paramore<3)
Ridiculous. The Conservatives were the ones to abolish O-levels in favour of GCSEs to raise standards, now they are doing the exact opposite after they believe standards have fallen.

Introducing a two-tier system (O-levels and CSEs) will do nothing to improve morale or grades. If it's not enough to make the current and past GCSE students feel as if they have worked for a now outdated qualification, making the 'less academic' do a completely different exam is not going to make anything better.

The endless focus on terminal exams and the English Baccalaureate is testament to how out of touch these politicians are. I would quite like to see them sit down and study for 11 exams that will happen over the space of one exam season, and potentially set the course for the rest of your educational career. I'm not saying GCSEs are perfect, but why overhaul the entire system? Making changes to curriculum, or way things are taught would have sufficed.

But this doesn't mean returning to 3 hour terminal exams, and dictating that you must have studied certain subjects to be awarded another qualification.
It just adds another tier to an increasingly elitist education system.

What about those that thrive at long-term projects and controlled assessment-type tasks? What about the new training teachers will have to undergo?

/rant. Sorry, I just can't stick them fiddling with exams non-stop!

So you're forgetting how btecers are looked down upon now rightly or wrongly :/ I think it's a change for the good tbh.

[us3481jd]

Why have actual exams at year eleven after 2014 anyway when pupils are going to stay on in education or training until 18?
I see it as more useful to a course that runs from year 9 to year 13 whereby one just set an A-level type course or training course from year 11 to year 13.

[Emrys141]

Does this mean that because GCSE's are apparently too easy,that 'clever' pupils aren't that clever at all?

That's the impression I'm getting through reading around the whole O Level thing, but most of my friends including myself revised hard for all the GCSE exams we took and yet won't walk away with straight A*s. I don't find them that easy and I understand that maybe others do. While I think it's unfair to label people as 'clever' and 'not so clever' simply because some don't perform well in exams, I'm doubting whether or not the exams I took were challenging or whether they were easy and I just couldn't do them anyway.

[DeathByBSOD]

(Original post by `God)
**** the government.

More like the illuminati...

*Join the conspiracy train*

[TheHansa]

I have that funny feeling that they will only make them slightly harder than current GCSEs and just 'woaaaah look at us bringing education back old-skool'

[desijut]

In my opinion, GCSE's dont stretch you enough at the highest level (A*) You should really have to earn it and currently, A*/A are thrown at candidates quite easily.

Getting an A/A* doesnt mean you're good at the subject in a lot of these cases. Take english, I hate it with a passion and think its pointless and am rubbish at it, but in literature i got an A* and in language, an A

EDIT- I think the biggest difference made would be a single exam board

[joshs141]

I think that these new exams should be introduced as an intermediate between gcse and a levels, so the gcses would be taken earlier followed by these next o level exams. This is similar to how we used to have SATS which i feel helped me ease myself from year 9 to GCSEs.

So the gap is bridged between each level of education.

[Transcendence]

(Original post by Dinosaurus_Rex)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-30-years.html

I think this is a disgrace to our generation, and the generation before us. Firstly, introducing GCSEs took away the certificates and the amount of work and effort the generation before us did for the past 30 years. Now, they are changing it back? Not only does this lead to the nullification of the GCSEs, it would devalue these awards, and make us feel Sh*t, even for the top percentage of students; they would never get the recognition which they deserved.
If anything, at least just reform the GCSEs, not completely change everything to O levels, this would leave the efforts of the last 30 years pointless and wasted, and makes us feel worthless. If they never changed to these GCSEs, problems like these would not occur, and everybody would be respected. The Tories have completely messed up our system.

What are your views on this?

GCSEs count for very little once you have A levels anyway, and if you aren't going for A levels, chances are your GCSEs are too bad already to be affected anyway. I thought they were too easy, and introducing difficult O levels is good.

[grizzletheconquerer]

The real problem is the government. They manage education on such a short term basis. That's why there's always radical changes between elected governments. Education system should not be radically changed every 5 years as it happens nowadays.

All of it should be managed from universities down. They know what is needed to get into uni, so they should decide what should be taught.

Another subject is the major problem we have with our private exam boards. They make such gross mistakes like marking exams wrong, setting impossible questions, and making exams easier so schools select them over competition.

If the unis managed all this we would get a quality education, without the political mottos.