One Diploma May Replace School Exams

I. Read the text and define the main idea of it.

IV. Discuss the content of the text in the form of a dialogue.

TEXT 26

GCSEs and A-levels could be scrapped in favour of an American-style ‘gradua­tion’ system under plans being drawn up by government advisers.

The scheme is understood to be fa­voured by Mike Tomlinson, the former chief inspector of schools who is heading a taskforce on exam reform. Under his proposals, secondary schools in England would move to the American model where students accumulate a fixed number of points or credits to graduate with a di­ploma from high school.

A similar system is used in much of Europe where pupils score points in indi­vidual subjects which go towards a Bachelor's degree – their equivalent of a gradu­ation certificate.

Experts believe that a single graduation diploma has significant advantages over the current system where pupils must take externally marked examinations in each subject that they study at both 16 and 18. A single certificate issued at 16 and 18 would radically reduce the number of exams students take and encourage more 16-year-olds to stay at school.

However critics counter that a single qualification would mean students do not get the same depth of education in particular subjects. They add that only with marked exams it is possible to main­tain national standards.

Estelle Morris, the former educa­tion secretary, gave Tomlinson the task of reviewing the exam system after last summer's A-level fiasco in which exam boards were accused of manipulating re­sults.

Tomlinson said that the main option being considered was a diploma or gradu­ation certificate based on credits earned in individual subjects. ‘The main issue is to reduce the assessment burden... There could be external tests in English and maths, and other subjects could be inter­nally assessed by teachers,’ he said.

‘There would not be free-standing qualifications. The diploma – we haven't decided on a final name – would be a qualification in its own right’.

Students would need to get a mini­mum set of credits to graduate and core subjects such as maths and English that would be compulsory’.

‘Not everyone would get a diploma, though we would expect most to do so,’ said Tomlinson. ‘There would probably be different grades of diploma and each student would get a transcript setting out the standards they had achieved’.

Universities would have more informa­tion about what applicants had achieved. ‘Students would have to do more than the existing three A-levels,’ he said. ‘The package could include basic skills in Eng­lish and maths, and a paper in critical thinking’.

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