Why GCSEs are no longer fit for purpose

Caroline Jordan, Headmistress at Headington School, questions whether we should be seeking an alternative.

This summer, there were tears of happiness and some of disappointment as we welcomed back our GCSE cohort to collect their results. Good news and a sign of things going back to how they should be – except, I am beginning to wonder if this is one thing we should be relegating to the past.

GCSEs don’t make sense. Why test children when they are still required to complete another two years of study? While your university or employer will likely want to see you’ve achieved a pass in Maths and English, very few are likely to pore over the results of your extra subjects and decide that this – rather than the extra-curricular activities another candidate brings to the table – is what differentiates you. With such a large portfolio of subjects, it’s simply not possible to study them all in the necessary depth while also maintaining a healthy attitude towards your learning. At Headington we’ve already taken steps to reduce the number of subjects sat by our pupils, with the majority taking nine GCSEs and encouraged to take an additional one-year qualification (we offer the Higher Project Qualification, School Certificate in Philosophy and Award in Financial Education) as a tenth subject. However, I don’t think this goes far enough.

Any parent of a 16-year-old will tell you about the toll that our current system takes upon them. Learning new material must stop earlier to ensure an opportunity for mock examinations, to practise being tested and ascertain what is known. Holidays are dominated by revision. So much revision! Children with no natural aptitude or interest in a subject will find themselves hating it all the more for having to go over it again and again in the hope they can regurgitate that information on the exam day. While schools offer varying degrees of choice, most mandate that courses are chosen from a range of different blocks. The English Baccalaureate, a measure which state schools are assessed upon, means many will consider English, Maths, Science, a humanity and a language subject a must. Great for breadth, less good for the child for whom, for example, language learning takes twice as long and is half as successful. So much assessment leaves so little opportunity for creativity, for enrichment and for learning for learning’s sake. Where is the time to go into greater depth – to unlock unexpected interests and light a spark of passion as you delve into new territory?

It is of course possible for a school to help its pupils achieve good results without teaching to the test, drilling facts mercilessly and sucking all the joy out of a subject. But it’s not easy when some of those more innovative and exciting approaches risk children not ‘reaching their academic potential’ based on a final exam. It’s a risk many schools, judged on their results by families, the media and indeed the Department for Education, cannot afford to take under the current climate. It’s a system which sets up a vast swathe for failure. If you have a bad day, if you are unwell, or have a crisis of confidence or suffer a family emergency, this could happen even to high achievers.

Exams are expensive too. There are entry costs for each subject, invigilators are required, then there’s the marking and moderation and any remarks. The greatest expense, though, over and above financial concerns, is one of time. Think what more could be achieved if we considered how better we could use those hours to enrich and enhance learning!

There are certain skills and knowledge that all young people should strive to acquire and I would not argue that a degree of assessment is unnecessary but this kind of high stakes, summative assessment tells us little. How can a single, stark number improve someone’s comprehension or shape their further study? If we are not able to use the information GCSEs give us then what value do they have?

We need to find a novel method of assessment which does not pose undue stress on these young people but instead helps them identify their strengths and weaknesses and supports them in finding what they want to pursue from a position of information and confidence. We can’t just throw out GCSEs overnight, much as I might like to. We need to know sixth formers are suitably prepared and will cope with the academic workload of A Levels or their alternatives. It is also important that schools can be held to account so parents can make an informed decision on who they entrust their children’s education to. What we need to do is open the conversation and have a real discussion about the purpose and future of GCSEs and find a better alternative that works for everyone.

This article first appeared in the 2023 edition of Which School? You can view the digital version of the guidebook here: