New GCSE shake-up

The demise of the GCSE moved closer today with ministers set to announce that the brightest pupils need not take them at all.

Instead, Education Secretary Estelle Morris believes that if children are able enough at age 16 or even younger, they should go straight on to the new AS-level exams, originally intended for sixth formers.

The proposal is due to be unveiled today as part of a Government plan which could change the face of secondary schools. A Green Paper, Extending Opportunities, Raising Standards, promises new vocational exams aimed at ending the "snobbery" over practical-based work and persuading more youngsters to stay on at school.

At the same time, a new distinction grade for the brightest A level students is intended to counter allegations that the package "dumbs down" academic standards.

It will mark the further downgrading of the GCSE, introduced in 1988 as a school-leaving exam to cater for all abilities, but increasingly questioned as more youngsters stay on after 16.

Elite independent schools, aiming to prepare students for the leading universities, already see little point entering them for up to a dozen GCSEs, particularly since the introduction of the AS-level. This exam, intended to broaden sixth form studies, made British teenagers the most intensively examined in the world when it was introduced in the summer.

The Government has so far refused to downgrade the GCSE, even when former chief exams adviser, Professor David Hargreave,s said it was pointless for most teenagers to take so many.

Today, Estelle Morris bows to the inevitable, but will portray the concession as a move to "set high achievers free". She is expected to say that in the past, "rigid structures" have held the brightest pupils back, adding: "Let us end the embarrassment about success that has dogged this nation for too many years."

"We must be the only country in the world where telling someone they are too clever by half is seen as an insult. I want to create a new fast-track for high achievers to stretch them further than ever before."

The most able pupils should be able to take GCSEs early, at age 14 or 15, she is expected to say, adding: "We should also let some young people skip GCSE altogether in some subjects and move straight on to AS-level."

Today's Green Paper also confirms the Government ambition - first disclosed last week by the Evening Standard - to boost language teaching in primary schools.

In order to create more room in the secondary schools curriculum for lessons tailored to individual pupils' needs and interests, modern foreign languages will cease to be compulsory after the age of 14 and pupils will be able to take a new "applied" option in science.

Several European ambassadors have already urged the Government not to downgrade language teaching, claiming one in 10 British businesses is already losing contracts because employees can only speak English.

Today, Ms Morris will aim to head off criticism by pledging that by 2010, every seven-year-old will be able to learn a language in primary school.

Few primary schools teach languages at present, because of the acute shortage of language teachers, itself reflecting the steady decline in A-level language students.

As a first step to recruit more, Ms Morris will today announce plans to create 200 extra training places for this autumn. Primary schools will be encouraged to work closely with secondary schools which specialise in language teaching and Ms Morris will also encourage primary teachers with rudimentary foreign languages - perhaps picked up on holiday - to teach children the "basics".

A senior Government source said: "We don't pretend this is something that can happen overnight. But this is about changing the way we teach modern foreign languages.

"We believe there will ultimately be more youngsters studying languages in secondary school, but they will be those who have picked languages up early, are good at them and want to study them further."