GCSE students poised for results

24 August 2011 Last updated at 23:42 GMT Students starting 2012 will have to sit all their exams at the end of the course About 750,000 pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due to find out their GCSE results, with another year of record scores likely.

The proportion of entries awarded the top grades has risen every year since the exams were first taken in 1988.

For the first time, most courses this year were taken in bite-size chunks, but coursework has been cut down.

The results come amid concerns that pressure to do specific, more academic subjects will "demotivate" students.

Schools will be able to give results to students from 0600, with one exam board, Edexcel, allowing pupils who have signed up beforehand to log in to a website and access them from home.

Last year saw 22.6% of exams awarded an A* or an A grade, up from 21.6% the previous year - while 7.5% gained an A*.

Education expert Prof Alan Smithers, of Buckingham University, has predicted that the figures may top 23% and 8% respectively this year.

'Culture of resits'

He said the shift to modular assessment, under which students can resit chunks of the course if they fail the first exam, might "push the results up".

But on the other hand, coursework has largely been replaced with controlled assessments taken in test conditions, which might "hold them down", he added.

Previously, some young people "clocked up a lot of points by producing massive bits of work and perhaps drawing on the help of parents and friends", he said.

The change might also help narrow girls' lead over boys in the results, as female students tend to be better able to apply themselves consistently over extended periods of time, he said.

Modular GCSEs in a wide range of subjects, apart from English, maths, ICT and science, were taught from 2009.

But Education Secretary Michael Gove has announced they will now be phased out, in order to end the "culture of resits" in which pupils can resit modules as they go.

Students starting GCSEs from September 2012 will have to sit all their exams at the end of the course.

Subject 'pressure'

Most students receiving their results this year will have started their courses before Mr Gove announced the English Baccalaureate in 2010.

This refers to a set of A*-C passes in maths, English, a language, two science qualifications and either history or geography.

But the head of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, Mary Bousted, suggested some pupils had been pressured to change to EBacc subjects during the past year.

"We hope that those pupils, whose schools felt pressured into changing their GCSE subjects midway to meet the English Baccalaureate, do not suffer as a result," she said.

The new focus on EBacc subjects "risks demotivating and alienating" thousands of young people who struggle with academic subjects, she said.

Russell Hobby, General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, cautioned against the "usual debate about what constitutes a good or bad subject".

"That misses the point... a well-taught media studies course is better than a badly taught English literature course," he said.

'Academic core'

A spokesman for the Department for Education said that the proportion of pupils doing these five core academic subjects has plummeted from half of all pupils in the late 90s to just one in five now.

The EBacc is not compulsory and "is only one measure of success", the DfE said, and "pupils should study what is right for them".

But the subjects formed an important core of academic study and would make young people more employable, the spokesman added.

The results come amid concerns about cuts to careers services and Education Maintenance Allowance study grants for low-income 16 to 19-year-olds.

On Tuesday, the head of the Association of School and College Leaders, Brian Lightman, warned that 16-year-olds faced "unprecedented challenges".

The numbers staying on in education between 16 and 18 are rising.

But DfE figures published on Wednesday showed a rise in the number of 18-24 year olds not in education, employment or training in England.

At 18.4%, the number is higher than any second quarter figure since 2006.

Most pupils in Scotland take Scottish Standard Grade and Higher qualificatons, rather than GCSEs and A-levels.

They received their results in early August.

View the original article here

Students elect Burns as president

13 April 2011 Last updated at 12:39 GMT By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent Liam Burns is currently president of the NUS in Scotland The National Union of Students has voted for Liam Burns as its new president.

Describing himself as a centre-left candidate, Mr Burns defeated the more radical Mark Bergfeld, and further education vice president, Shane Chowen.

Mr Burns, currently president of the NUS in Scotland, called for further peaceful direct action protests.

He accused the government of "desperately scrambling" with its tuition fees policy in England.

The election, which used the alternative vote system, saw two moderate candidates heading the field.

In his manifesto, Mr Burns said: "I support direct action, but will never accept the use of violence."

Speaking after his election he said there would be more local protests and "civil disobedience", in the form of sit-ins, occupations and demonstrations.

But he emphasised the need to bring along the majority of students and to maintain public support.

Student demonstrations

The previous year has seen a level of student activism not seen for decades, as students opposed the raising of tuition fees and cuts in university budgets.

Universities are now announcing their plans for higher fees, but Mr Burns rejects the suggestion that the battles have now been lost.

"It's not lost, when there's never been a policy when the sums added up so badly," said Mr Burns.

"It's a regressive policy that hasn't even saved them any money."

In terms of the year ahead, he said there would be joint campaigns between students and other unions.

He also said he wanted to link the NUS with "disenfranchised Liberal Democrats".

And he highlighted concerns over student finance and threats to cut places as issues that are likely to be important in the forthcoming year.

He warned the government in England against "cutting numbers to fill the hole in their maths".

The second-placed candidate, Shane Chowen, would have been the first non-graduate to have become NUS president and Mr Burns highlighted the importance of the loss of the education maintenance allowance for teenagers.

Outgoing president

The outgoing president, Aaron Porter, who had headed the NUS through such a high-profile and tumultuous year, had addressed the conference on Tuesday.

He attacked the Liberal Democrats, who had gone back on an election pledge to students to vote against any fee increase, as the "real villains".

And he accused the coalition government of a "gigantic misjudgement" over its higher education reforms.

"The public cost of higher education may actually be higher by 2015 than it was last year, even though students are also paying up to three times as much.

"It is the worst imaginable outcome and we warned them it would happen again and again," said Mr Porter.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.