My blog

Tag: GCSEs

  • Thwarted plans: why the new UCAS report must be acted on by schools

    Thwarted plans: why the new UCAS report must be acted on by schools

    Alice Wright

    The University and College Admissions Service (UCAS) has released a report stating that one in five students are ill-prepared for university because they are not able to take the correct subjects at school that would allow them to study a degree that interests them.  

    The report went on to say that two in five students stated they would have made “better choices” if they had been provided with better information. It’s clear that young adults are being asked to make decisions that will affect their working future increasingly early on in life. Subject choices as early as GCSE are becoming factors in what degrees are open to them, and then in what careers they may pursue. 

    In other words, pupils are being failed. To create opportunities and leave paths open, children and young adults must be given the correct information. Such information must also be given in creative and stimulating ways to ensure it sinks in. It is no good handing out dry, colourless leaflets with lists of required subjects under a list of alphabetised career paths. People bring professions to life, and schools should make use of engaging speakers at the top of their industries who are willing to talk about what their working life has been like and how others might follow them.  

    This year, the government has decided to implement the “Enterprise Adviser Network”, and idea facilitated by the Careers and Enterprise Company. The idea – a laudable one – is to connect youngsters with leaders in different sectors and to provide careers advice. But only another such report in following years will tell if it is enough.   

    Making the right educational decisions as a young adult is also important in the backdrop of a highly commodified higher and further education system. Universities and colleges are financially incentivised to recruit as many students as possible, and fill gaps in courses whose capacity has not been reached. According to the Social Market Foundation, this has led to a so-called “turf-war” between the two sectors. This self-interest means students should not rely on those institutions for impartial advice. They must get it earlier from schools services – but above all, make their own informed decisions.  

    Knowledge can spark inspiration and passion that will determine a young adult’s future. Schools must look at UCAS’ findings and get creative to ensure their pupils are armed with the best information to take them forward into higher or further education, and eventually into the working world.  

  • Opinion: Getting rid of exams will create a generation unfit for the workplace

    Opinion: Getting rid of exams will create a generation unfit for the workplace

    Alice Wright

    Exams are never popular and are never going to be. They’re stressful and known to induce waking nightmares well into adulthood. Occasionally I’ll wake up in cold sweats thinking that I’ve missed my History A-level paper on Henry VIII’s foreign policy. There is no point in glamourising it: exams are horrible. 

    They are however, necessary. Exams are the first time you feel the reality of having your future in your hands. To be able to excel under your own steam and with those results, craft a future of your own choice. Life as we know it is pressured, and exams introduce a person to that in a controlled environment. They teach time management and stress control. 

    Yet there are a cohort of teenagers whose first experience of exams may also be their last. It is the 2003-2004 age group whose GCSEs were cancelled last year, no longer sit AS levels, and who must face their final school exams with no real preparation at all. 

    GCSEs should be considered a learning curve, a stepping stone. I am in full agreement with those that think children of that age are put under too much stress – but not with those that want them removed completely. AS levels used to represent the next step, to break the leap into higher education. Being worth half of the overall marks, they provide the opportunity to learn and improve the following year. 

    Whilst 50 per cent of this cohort will likely go on to university or college, the other 50 per cent will not, either moving into apprenticeships or the world of work. Both demographics will suffer from not having experienced the preparatory rigour of exams. 

    If the cancellation of the last two years’ worth of exams, (and potentially next summer’s too) led to a genuine overhaul of our education system where we began to cherish learning for learning’s sake instead of mass-produced league table fodder, I would understand. If we replaced these assessments with another form that delivers the same lessons in diligence without so much anxiety, I would be all for it. 

    Alas, I see no such utopia in sight. Therefore this cohort’s lost opportunities must be addressed, and plans to mitigate how this will affect their futures long term should be made now. 

    Photo credit: Studio Neat