English Language GCSE should be scrapped to 'end misery' of third of teens being labeled as failures, report says

By Sue Smith

The article calling for the scrapping of the GCSE English to avoid students being labeled failures is not really going in the right direction, in my opinion.

I don’t agree that the qualification is not fit for purpose, as I believe that students should be challenged to read and write English with competence. The real issue here is the importance being placed on the GCSE English qualification in the face of spiraling grades for university entrance. It is a fact that the majority of GCSE aged students doesn’t really go into entry level jobs where employers have low level expectations of students’ English language skills. Or if they do go into those types of jobs, they don’t remain in them.

I think the GCSE in English is a good way for students to be challenged in a range of English language skills. And if the student is proceeding to higher education – the A-levels and to university – a higher degree of English language skill will be useful. The way grades are being used for entry into university needs to be looked at more closely. Possibly different tiers of English language skills might be developed but I would not support the scrapping of the GCSE English language qualification.