Abandon resits because they almost always end in failure, former exam board head says

Abandon GCSE resits because they almost always end in failure, the former chief executive of a leading exam board has said.

Mark Dawe, the former boss of OCR, said that young people are currently forced to take endless resits until they achieve at least a C in Maths and English GCSE due to the funding agreements between further education colleges and the Department for Education.

Last year, more than three quarters of students in England failed to achieve a grade C during their resits in these subjects, according to figures from the Joint Council for Qualifications. 

Mr Dawe, who is CEO of Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said that the resits policy is leading to “mass failure” and warned that this year’s resits figures would be “pretty dire”.

“The funding rule is that if a young person at 16 doesn’t get a C [in English and Maths], if they go on to further education, they have to do a re-take,” Mr Dawe said.

“Some are having to re-do it over and over. Our view is that you are driving these young people, who have already had a bad experience with education, to yet more bad experiences.

“Whereas you could be teaching them maths and English that is much more relevant to the subject they enjoy and relevant to their course.”  

He said that instead of retaking GCSEs, students in further education could take the equivalent Level Two exams in Functional Skills, which can be tailored to meet the needs of a particular vocational course. 

Earlier this week, Lord Kenneth Baker, said that since teenagers must now stay in full-time education until age 18, he expects "more and more people to question the necessity of GCSEs".

"They are bound to be questioned now that education goes on until age 18," said Lord Baker, who was education secretary under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s and introduced GCSEs.

"When I took the school certificate in 1950, the whole point was that you had to show your employer. Most people went on to work so they needed a certificate. Now the age of 16 is much less important."