Professor Wolf’s review warned that too many pupils lacked basic skills in literacy and numeracy Teenagers who fail to achieve good GCSE grades at English and maths will be expected to carry on studying the subjects until they are 19, the government is set to announce.
The government is responding to Alison Wolf’s review of vocational education.
Professor Wolf was critical of the quality of skills being taught to many youngsters after the age of 16.
There will also be changes to school league tables to show the spread of high and low achieving pupils.
Many of the recommendations in Professor Wolf’s report are set to be accepted – including her concern that too many teenagers are leaving school without adequate basic skills.
Education Secretary Michael Gove had welcomed the report, published in March, which called for greater honesty in the information for students about the value of vocational courses.
She warned that hundreds of thousands of teenagers were being consigned to low-quality “dead end” vocational courses, when they really needed the type of basic skills in literacy and numeracy required by employers.
“The staple offer for between a quarter and a third of the post-16 cohort is a diet of low-level vocational qualifications, most of which have little to no labour market value,” said the Wolf Report.
Last summer 45% of 16-year-olds failed to achieve a C grade at GCSE maths and English, and Professor Wolf wants such youngsters to continue studying these basic subjects.
“Good levels of English and mathematics continue to be the most generally useful and valuable vocational skills on offer”
Wolf Report
The government is set to call for students in the 16 to 19 age group to continue with English and maths until they reach this benchmark of a good GCSE.
For those who are unable to get to this grade, there will be a proposal for them to study other “high-quality English and maths qualifications”.
While arguing that the system of vocational qualifications was “complex and opaque”, Professor Wolf said that in practice “good levels of English and mathematics continue to be the most generally useful and valuable vocational skills on offer”.
This emphasis on literacy and numeracy was welcomed by the Confederation of British Industry’s director for education and skills, Susan Anderson.
“We welcome the announcement that young people who didn’t get A*-C English and maths GCSEs will now be supported to achieve this benchmark by 19. These subjects are essential for work,” she said.
The CBI recently warned that many employers were unhappy with the levels of literacy and numeracy among school leavers.
Professor Wolf’s review also called for the end of “perverse incentives” in school league tables – with some pupils being steered towards vocational exams which would improve school rankings.
She warned against “incentives for schools to pile up large numbers of qualifications”.
It is expected that exam league tables are to be expanded to show more information about the spread of a schools results, showing how the most and least able pupils are performing.
This addresses the concern that the current rankings – based on how many pupils achieve five GCSEs grade A* to C – encourage schools to focus too much attention on borderline pupils who could be pushed to achieve a C grade.
“If you have a single measure, which is the only thing that anybody cares about, it has absolutely appalling effects because people game it and they only care about the people around the margin,” Professor Wolf told the education select committee last month.
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