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Baroness: Scrap GCSEs for 16-year-olds
09 March 2010
A former education secretary has recommended that GCSEs be taken at age 14 instead of 16 once new government reforms are implemented.
Baroness Morris, who resigned as education secretary in 2002, told the House of Commons Schools Select Committee that continuing to set GCSE examinations at age 16 will not fit with plans to raise the school leaving age to 18.
She is quoted by the Telegraph as saying: "As long as we have got this system where the National Curriculum finishes at 16 and yet we talk about a cohesive 14 to 19 strategy, it will never work.
"I think GCSEs ought to be at 14. I see no reason for exams at 16."
The school leaving age will be raised in 2013, with teenagers expected to continue with their studies, attend college or secure work placements for the additional two compulsory years.
Ofqual recently revealed that it ordered some exam boards to downgrade disproportionately high science GCSE results last year.