Michael Gove yesterday announced plans to introduce an English baccalaureate — a certificate awarded to pupils who pass five or more GCSEs at grade C or above, including English, maths, a science, a foreign language and one of the humanities. The intention is to recognise and reward students who take a broad range of subjects and stem the exodus from old popular subjects, such as foreign languages and history.
While the aim is noble, the means are deeply flawed. An English baccalaureate won’t solve the problem of grade inflation, nor will it simplify England’s cumbersome and overcomplicated exam system. A baccalaureate is a fudge and little more than a fig leaf for inaction.
An “English bac” won’t stretch bright pupils any further. High achievers are already encouraged to take languages and humanities anyway, as universities prefer these qualifications. Employers and universities will still be left with a glut of excellent grades to sift through. Students will not learn anything extra or more challenging — all they will receive is another certificate.
Nor will the “English bac” make the oft-criticised vocational subjects any more respectable among universities and employers. There is absolutely no reason why vocational qualifications in ICT, engineering, or even the much-maligned media studies should not be rigorous and useful. An English baccalaureate rewards pupils who steer clear of such subjects, undermining the diploma system even further.
As it is, secondary education in England today is a barely coherent mishmash, with GCSEs and A-levels mixed in with BTecs and diplomas. Ostensibly, each qualification is the equivalent of the other; in reality, there’s a hierarchy. Top schools and middle-class parents encourage students to take only well-regarded GCSEs and A-levels, and to leave BTecs and diplomas well alone.
The students at bog-standard comps, meanwhile, are lumbered with worthless qualifications that universities don’t want and that employers don’t need, as schools prop up their League ranking by shepherding students into less challenging subjects. The last thing the system needs is another tier of qualifications, complicating it further.
Rather than reforming, Gove is tinkering. The English baccalaureate will change nothing. Gove is continuing Labour’s long-term education policy of ignoring calls to integrate secondary education properly in England.
In 2004, after two years’ work, the Tomlinson report was released. It called for comprehensive reform of secondary education and the introduction of an integrated diploma system that would allow academic and vocational elements under the same, overarching system. The report was completely ignored by the Labour government. Instead, the English secondary education system was left as a complete Horlicks.
If Gove is serious about reforming education, he should start by sorting out the qualifications on offer, making the system comprehensive and understandable, and removing the innuendo that dictates which subjects are respectable and which aren’t. Gove calls his proposals “formidable reform”, but an English baccalaureate is just more insipid tinkering at the edges.
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