'GCSEs not suitable for less able students'

The future of the GCSE exam was called further into doubt as more than half a million teenagers wait for their results this week.

Top schools are planning to drop the exam introduced nearly 20 years ago, but which they say has now become too easy for the brightest pupils.

Meanwhile, the head of the country's exams watchdog says up to 100,000 youngsters at the other end of the educational scale should spend most of their last two years in school learning in the workplace.

He was backed by experts who said too many less able children are being entered for academic exams they have no chance of passing.

And employers themselves said so many children are leaving school without basic literacy and numeracy, they are having to lay on remedial courses.

The debate over the future of the exam intensified ahead of Thursday's results, expected to show further polarisation in secondary schools.

Last year, the pass rate at grades A* to C rose again to

58.1 per cent, up by 0.2 percentage points on the year before.

However the number of youngsters leaving school with nothing also rose, with the overall pass rate falling by 0.3 points to 97.6 per cent.

At the other end of the scale, more than nine out of 10 GCSEs taken at leading independent schools are now awarded grades A* and A.

Eton College, and a number of other leading independent schools, plans to reduce the number of GCSEs taken to allow pupils to start sixth form studies early.

And successful stat e schools like Tiffin Girls' School in Kingston-upon-Thames plans to let its brightest pupils skip GCSE altogether in some subjects and start AS-levels at age 15.

Dr Ken Boston, chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority which regulates exams, said at least 100,000 secondary school pupils should be spending their last two years of compulsory schooling mostly in the workplace.

New regulations mean all 14-year-olds are required to take part in some workrelated learning from age 14, but Dr Boston said greater emphasis should be placed on vocational courses for students who did not enjoy academic work.

"There is a proportion of youngsters at 14 who should be doing really strongly vocational education, a connection with the world of work," he said, adding: "Not because they are destined to become plumbers or builders but because that is the sort of learning that turns them on."