Michael Gove, the education secretary, has written to the qualifications
watchdog, Ofqual, calling for exam boards and ministers to "take a step
back" from dictating the content of the exams.
Instead, the
24 most academically competitive universities will be allowed to "drive
the system" by setting questions and deciding what topics students will
need to know.
However it seems that Michael Gove has not been listening and
taking on board the universities concerns. Million+ which represents twenty-six
of the new universities said setting A-level questions was a "much
more complex task than simply getting a few academics together". Million+
also said academics had told ministers that the A-level system was ‘not broken’
at a meeting earlier this year but ‘ministers appear to have ignored this
advice’.
She said academics told ministers that the A-level system was
"not broken" at a meeting earlier this year. "Ministers appear
to have ignored this advice," she said.
In addition Dr Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group,
said universities already had a "big job to do" in educating
undergraduates. "We also have a lot to do in conducting research and
making sure that research has an impact on the economy. So we don't actually
have much time and resource spare to spend a lot of time in reforming A-levels.
We have to see exactly what these proposals are, but we are certainly willing
to give as much time as we can into giving advice to the exam boards and to the
department and we will do our best."
Gove's move is likely to lead to fewer students achieving top
grades, the abolition of modules and retakes – other than in exceptional
circumstances – and longer essay questions in exams.
The coalition wants the new A-levels to be taught from as soon as
2014. Students would sit the exams two years later. Initially, the changes
would affect English, maths and science A-levels in England, but would soon be
rolled out to all subjects and across the UK.
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