Gove had the right idea with the poorest of implementation.

Education Secretary Michael Gove is under pressure from all sides. 

‘Exams are getting easier’ has been a reoccurring discourse at this time of every year for the past twenty years. Teachers have insisted that it is their improved planning and continued dedication to the job that has consistently improved GCSE results for the last two decades or so. Yet, even the most ardent supporter of our education system would admit behind closed doors, and off the record, that the exams could and probably should be a bit harder.

However, the solution to the problem is not to increase the grade boundaries mid-way through the year without actually telling anybody. We’re currently having to deal with exam boards being threatened with legal action from head-teachers at schools and ‘C Grade’ students receiving D’s and struggling with entry into sixth forms – not ideal by any stretch of the imagination.

So what’s the solution I hear you ask? Firstly, I believe we as a nation have to escape the stigma that is attached to students not going to university and wishing to complete vocational qualifications or to undertake an apprenticeship. We need to produce skilled workers within the country that are capable of working different trades and for their commitment to these trades not to be shunned by heads looking to increase their grades in subjects that will never be relevant to their place in the working world and beyond. Embrace those looking to achieve excellence in trades such as mechanics, plumbing and bricklaying. Do not ostracise them as ‘non-academics’ and therefore unsuccessful.   

Further, we do need to reform the GCSE qualification in the future and Education Secretary Michael Gove’s plan to bring back the O Level is not far off of the mark. We have clearly fallen behind the standards that we once set in education and the qualifications we receive at sixteen years of age are no longer rivalling that of other nations. Many students can breeze through school, picking up top grades, setting the wrong attitude for later life. And I can tell you now that even a Bachelors’ Degree and a Masters will not allow me to stroll into my dream job. We’re going through difficult times as a country, a continent, even a world. But if we renew the principles that we once set and win back the lead in the education, we will stand more chance of producing a higher number of harder working, determined and articulate individuals from our schools.

So the stall is set. Let us and our teachers care less about statistics. Less about 12 A* GCSEs. And more about a world in which the potential is there for everybody to succeed as equals, whether you’re going to be a future Oxbridge graduate, or an apprentice mechanic. Success isn’t pre-determined by pretty looking pieces of paper. It requires hard work and endeavour, something we as Brits know we can do best.