Comment: GCSEs - some further questions

Yet again the numbers of pupils getting top grades in their GCSEs has risen. More than one in five pupils has got an A-grade while two-thirds of candidates scored A-C. The successes are the result of the efforts of pupils and teachers who have worked extremely hard. Whether they are a measure of ever better educational and teaching standards is less clear. There are some trends that are unambiguous, however. One is the decline in the numbers of pupils taking foreign languages at GCSE and a corresponding rise in the numbers taking soft subjects such as media studies. Even more worryingly, a significant proportion of those who do take more demanding subjects come from independent schools, a symptom of a kind of educational apartheid. Correspondingly, poorer pupils are more likely to take less academically demanding vocational subjects. And while the numbers achieving top grades has increased enormously, there is still a stubbornly large percentage of pupils who leave school with fewer than five good GCSEs, including English and maths.

The Government maintains that reform is under way. In the next two years, a new modular version of GCSE is being introduced, which will enable pupils to sit their exams in two chunks rather than at the end of a two-year course. This will enable those with poor results in the first year to resit their exams in the second. However, it will also add to the burden of examinations on pupils already being tested at the ages of 11 and 14. Having examinations at 15 as well as 16 means the amount of time given over to exploratory learning, rather than cramming for tests, will diminish further. At the same time, much of the coursework element of the examination will be replaced by controlled assessment - which means pupils undertaking the work in the classroom under the supervision of a teacher, which lessens the possibility of cheating. Nonetheless, increasing numbers of private schools are taking the international version of the GCSE, which has no coursework and resembles the old-style O-level.

Today's results will be rightly celebrated in many families. But GCSEs need constant reassessment to produce an examination that commands respect.