Bite-sized GCSEs you can keep resitting until you get a pass

GCSE courses are to be split into bite-size chunks, with teenagers able to bump up their marks by resitting sections as they go along.

Pupils will be able to walk into final exams at the end of two-year courses with 60 per cent of their marks already in the bank.

The overhaul unveiled yesterday by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority follows similar changes to A-level, which are said to have fuelled grade inflation and have now been partially reversed.

The GCSE shake-up will also axe coursework in almost all subjects to prevent cheating; make exam questions harder amid evidence they have become 'predictable', and reverse a decline in the lesson time devoted to British history.

Under the new arrangements, planned to take effect from 2009, exam boards will be encouraged to split GCSE courses into separately tested units.

Pupils would be able to take individual units as they progress through their courses, leaving as few as 40 per cent of the marks for final exams.

Students would have a chance to resit each unit with the best mark counting towards the final grade.

Reforms to A-levels which divided the qualification into six units and allowed candidates resits to boost their marks are said to have contributed to grade inflation.

The first year of results under the new A-level system in 2002 saw the pass rate leap from 89.8 per cent to 94.3 per cent, with a similar rise in the proportion of A grades.

The number of units will now be cut from six to four in most subjects and pupils will sit a tough overview paper, drawing together elements of all components studied.

Critics said that similarly breaking up GCSE courses could deny pupils an 'integrated understanding' of their subjects and increase overall results by making it easier for candidates to get high marks.

The measures are an attempt by QCA bosses to restore the credibility of a 20-year-old qualification at a time when an exam modelled on the old O-level is emerging as a rival to the GCSE.

Many leading private schools have already switched to the so-called International GCSE.

Alan Smithers, professor of education at the University of Buckingham, said: "The possible advantage is that young people can be motivated by clocking up credit as they go along.

"But the big disadvantage is that modular exams turn the subjects into bite-sized bits, rather than a rounded idea. We know from comparing linear and modular A-levels that it is easier to get higher grades when the exams are modular.

"I expect we will see an improvement in grades but not necessarily an improvement in the education of our 15 and 16-year-olds.

"We might be in danger of fooling ourselves that education is getting better when international comparisons show that we are tending to fall back."

Dr Ken Boston, QCA chief executive, said: "The revised GCSE qualification and subject criteria will ensure that public confidence is maintained in the qualification for the next 20 years and that young people are stretched and challenged by giving them the opportunity to undertake extended writing tasks and more varied question types."