Leading schools 'will shun' new modular GCSEs

The Government has paved the way for new modular GCSEs in almost all subjects from next year, in which pupils will resit individual units to improve their grades.

But the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference of elite schools said the move would add to the pressure of tests and reduce the time teachers can spend giving children a genuine education.

Many of the HMC's 250 schools will ditch the new courses in favour of traditional O-level style exams, the group predicted.

The warning came as about 750,000 teenagers prepare to receive their GCSE results on Thursday.

HMC secretary Geoff Lucas said growing numbers of independent schools were dropping GCSEs in subjects such as maths and sciences in favour of the international version of the exams, which are seen as harder.

At least 70 per cent of HMC schools taught International GCSEs in at least one subject this summer, he said.

Modular GCSEs will be even less attractive than the exams are now.

Mr Lucas said: "It will add to the pressure of resits. There's no doubt that linear assessment (at the end of a two-year course) is used by a lot of our schools as a way of buying back valuable teaching and learning time, reducing the gross intrusion of assessment into curriculum time."

The reforms "will be an additional nail in the coffin for GCSEs as far as many of our schools are concerned", he said. "I think a lot of people will just defect to doing International GCSEs."

International GCSEs involve exams after two years, no coursework and have been likened to traditional O-levels, which were replaced by GCSEs in 1988.

From 2009, most GCSE subjects will be available in modular courses, allowing pupils to take exams after one year and resit them if they are not happy with their results.

And a new course in basic literacy and numeracy for daily life will also be compulsory in revised English and maths GCSEs from 2010. Pupils must pass this so-called "functional skills" element in order to get a C grade or better.

Mr Lucas said HMC schools were bound to reject this extra skills "hurdle".

Dividing GCSEs into modules brings the exams into closer alignment with A-levels, which became modular in 2000.

Critics fear cutting the courses into chunks will make GCSEs easier to pass. When A-levels became modular, the pass rate suddenly rose, leading to a grading crisis that contributed to the resignation of Estelle Morris as education secretary.

Pupils taking the new modular GCSEs will be able to complete up to 60 per cent of their courses before their final exams.

A spokeswoman for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which devised the plan, insisted exam standards were being maintained. Two-year "linear" courses will still be available, she said.

"We don't require it to be either linear or (modular). We set the criteria. The awarding bodies then decide which qualifications schools and colleges are most likely to engage with."

The pass rate for GCSE top grades is expected to rise again when results are published on Thursday.

Experts predict the proportion of A and A* grades awarded to 16-yearolds could reach 20 per cent for the first time.