The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) fears the exams, taken by 16-year-olds, force pupils to narrow their options too early and with the school leaving age set to rise to 18 by 2015, the organisation calls to reconsider the current exam system. The organisation states that it has concerns that many youngsters may not be getting the breadth of education, the core subjects and employability skills they will need later in life.
Neil Carberry, Director for Education
at the CBI, said: "We are questioning whether we have the structure right
at secondary [school], whether the current arrangement of exams at 16 is
leading people to narrow their choices too early."
A Department for Education spokesman
said: "We want all our exams to rank with the best in the world. Our
reforms to GCSEs will mean students achieve a real and lasting understanding of
a subject."
However the CBI, which speaks on
behalf of 240,000 businesses, is not the first to raise concerns about GCSEs.
Last year, former Education Secretary Baroness Estelle Morris suggested the
exams should be scrapped and replaced with new tests at age 14.
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