NUT: “Yet again we see Michael Gove rushing ahead with reforms which are downright unwise”
Commenting on Michael Gove’s letter to Ofqual, setting out a timetable for reform of A-Levels, Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers’ union, said:
“Yet again we see Michael Gove rushing ahead with reforms which are downright unwise. Getting rid of AS levels and returning to one final exam at the end of two years has little or no support from either education bodies or students.
“Michael Gove’s claims that Cambridge University backed his plans for the reforms backfired when a petition was handed into his Department signed by 1,600 students and faculty members saying no to the proposals and disputing the fact that they had supported the reforms. This is policy making of the worst kind, based on half-truths and personal whim.
“Michael Gove needs to learn his lessons from the EBacc debacle. Continuing in this obdurate fashion will ruin many pupils’ educational experience and life chances. This is not about standards. This is about one man’s ill-informed view of the way the world and education in this country should work.
“The Secretary of State needs to see sense and listen to sound educational argument. Teachers and lecturers value the AS because it widens the breadth of students’ studies at this level, as well as helping them to progress to the full A-Level. Ofqual itself, when comparing A-Levels to their international equivalent, found that A-Levels performed well against international standards. We need to keep the current system and improve on it.”
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For further information contact Caroline Cowie on 0207 380 4706 or 07879480061
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