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Diplomas can't replace A-levels, exam chief warns 'barmy' Balls
Tim Ross, Education Correspondent21 Jul 2009
OCR chairman Simon Lebus disagrees with Ed Balls over reforms
The head of a major exam board has scathingly attacked the Government's education reforms.
Simon Lebus, chief executive of Cambridge Assessment, said Children's Secretary Ed Balls was "barmy" to think the Government's new diplomas could replace A-levels.
He accused ministers of sacrificing the quality of education to make results easier to measure for official targets. He questioned whether some A-level subjects and other equivalent qualifications were easier than others.
Mr Lebus, who is also chairman of the OCR exam board, run by Cambridge Assessment, spoke to the Standard as almost one million pupils in England - and 115,000 in London - await their GCSE and A-level results. Diploma grades are also due next month.
His remarks are another blow to the diplomas, which are already in trouble after only 12,000 pupils signed up for them rather than a projection of up to 50,000. OCR - one of England's three biggest exam boards -has invested in developing them for schools.
Diplomas combine practical skills and work experience with academic theory in subjects such as construction, media and engineering and were introduced last September.
Mr Balls has refused to guarantee a future for A-levels beyond a review in 2013. Mr Lebus dismissed his suggestion that diplomas could replace A-levels as "a fantasy".
"The diploma has a role but it's not something that's going to displace the existing qualifications and neither should it," he said. "It takes a long time to understand new qualifications. To introduce a major reform and expect it to displace existing provision within three or four years is essentially a barmy idea."
The Government has proposed so-called academic diplomas in languages, science and humanities, and diplomas will be worth more than three A-levels in university and league table points.
Education minister Iain Wright said: "A-levels rightly remain one of the most popular qualifications, and ministers have never said the diploma should replace them. Our reforms are not about swapping one qualification for another but about giving young people greater choice and flexibility, so they stay learning for longer and get the skills they need."
But Mr Lebus condemned the "political drive" to design qualifications as equivalent to A-levels and GCSEs.
Schools have been accused of steering pupils towards vocational courses because they were thought to be easier than GCSEs but equivalent to several in official league tables.
A higher-level diploma will be worth seven A*-C GCSEs, but only requires about the time to complete five or six. Mr Lebus believes this "distorts the way qualifications get designed and managed". He said: "We measure education at the expense of educational quality. That's not a very healthy thing."
He even suggested it could be false to compare A-level subjects. Cambridge University advises teenagers against taking more than one of 20 A-levels such as art and design, dance and media.
Mr Lebus also criticised the Government's plan to replace league tables with American-style report cards that rate schools on wider features. He said such an approach would only "magnify" the problems of league tables.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families said exams watchdog Ofqual would "make sure qualifications of the same level are comparable so students, parents and teachers have confidence that their qualifications count".
Diplomas
Courses started last year for 14- to 19-year-olds in England, combining practical experience and theory. The first five diplomas were in engineering, construction and the built environment, information technology, creative and media, and society, health and development. Ministers say diplomas could replace A-levels and GCSEs as “the qualifications of choice” for teenagers.
School report cards
Schools could be awarded one overall grade from A to F based on features including exam results, truancy, pupils' progress and children's “well-being”. Good exam results alone would not be enough for schools to achieve the top grade. Children's Secretary Ed Balls backs the idea, which is based on a scheme operating in the US.
Qualifications and credit framework
A scheme designed to simplify the “alphabet soup” of vocational qualifications by giving them a clear weighting based on the number of credits each is worth. One credit takes 10 hours of work to complete. The scheme builds on conformity between GCSEs, A-levels and other qualifications.
Reader views (9)
The professional politician's solution to all of life's problems - new policy initatives. Never mind working out what the problems really are, and whether the previously implemented changes were succesful. The sad thing is you can bet that the New Conservatives will be little different in government from New Labour.
- Austen, London, 21/07/2009 14:32
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Liberal and Proud, you state "The fact is that more kids work harder and do better at school now than ever before - more go to university", you completely neglect to mention the dumbing down that has occurred in the last 20+ years to allow this situation to occur. I challenge you to find me an 'A' level science student who could sit a science paper from the 80’s and achieve the same results as they would in a current paper. If you doubt me, ask any science lecturer about how much has been removed from their course in the last 20 years to achieve higher results. Not to mention that the old system graded on a sliding scale, the top 10% achieved an A grade, next 20% B, etc, now it's all flat rate where anyone scoring over 70% scores a A which makes the situation even more confusing. The more these exams are dumbed down, the more we create a nation of idiots who aren't fit for purpose in the workplace, which is why we need to import so many foreign graduates to work in the city.
- Bob, Cheam, 21/07/2009 12:50
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Liberal and Proud, it's your sort of inane, fantasy relativism that's been used to justify labour's utter destruction of a worthwhile educational system. Please don't imagine that better grades equals better education - you only have to compare O level to GCSEs to spot that. Last year on TV I saw a child with an A grade in French GCSE who couldn't decline 'avoir' in the present tense. I'm assuming his mastery of French amounted to studying strike tactics and quick retreat.
- David Chiene, London, 21/07/2009 12:39
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Balls has got all the qualifications to be the next Labour Party leader!
- Tony Johnson, Hythe UK, 21/07/2009 11:48
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It always entertains me to see the venom people have for anything to do with Labour education policy as if there was some golden period of education where everybody did fantastically well!
Education has always been a political tool - prior to Labour's incessent fiddling, there was 18 years of Tory messing around and rejigging etc. (who do you think replaced O Levels with GCSEs). Prior to that only 10-15% of people went on to higher education, prior to that hardly anyone stayed on beyond 14!
The fact is that more kids work harder and do better at school now than ever before - more go to university, more have higher skilled jobs - all this despite Government fiddling.
The kids that do the best are the ones that have parents that support and encourage them to do well in education - regardless of which school they go to or what the current education policy trend is.
- Liberal And Proud, London, UK, 21/07/2009 11:41
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And now they have screwed up the education system they are latching on to the Home educators who actually teach kids to learn and not just pass tests and tick boxes. So now after years of the one visit inspector they want to now get involved and register all kids who are home educated so they get some credit for properly educated kids. Its so disgusting this country and they talk about he corruption of other countries my goodness !!
- Jenny, Islington London Uk, 21/07/2009 11:16
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Ed Balls, barmy? He's as sane as any thribble wibble bark.
- Bob, Cheam, 21/07/2009 10:36
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".. sacrificing the quality of education to make results easier .."
This Labour scumbag government have been doing so for years. Like their failed social engineering project that is our society, it is all about the lowest common denominator. Dumb down the rich or intelligent or entrepreneur. Throw as much money as possible at the feckless or minorities.
We should all become automatons and vote Labour and bow to their European President Blair. The only reason Blair signed us up to the EU Constitution without allowing us the vote that they pledged last election, was because the corrupt EU politicians offered Blair the presidency.
Filth.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 21/07/2009 10:29
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1997-2009 : The lost years of UK Education. Out of interest, where does Balls send his children for their education?
- Andy Davids, London, 21/07/2009 10:27
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