The end of modular exams

Graeme Paton By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

Teenagers will be tested at the end of two years – with no exams in the first 12 months – to stop courses being broken down into bite-sized chunks that encourage a “formulaic approach” to education.

AS-levels, which are currently taken in the first year of the sixth-form, will become standalone qualifications, with marks no longer counting towards final A-level grades.

Ministers hope it will allow many students in England to take three full A-levels and supplement them with at least one shorter AS qualification in a separate subject.

In a radical move, it was also revealed that the Russell Group of elite universities will set up a new academic board to advise the exams watchdog on the design of A-levels, which will be introduced from September 2015.

Subject specialists from top universities will carry out annual reviews of exams to make sure course content is being properly assessed, it was revealed.

The move – to be announced on Wednesday by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary – is being billed as an attempt to restore academic rigour to qualifications sat by around 300,000 schoolchildren each year.

It comes amid claims that current A-levels fail to prepare students for the demands of higher education, with many universities complaining that school-leavers lack subject knowledge and basic skills.

In a letter to the head of Ofqual, Mr Gove said there was “clear dissatisfaction among leading university academics about the preparation of A-level pupils for advanced studies”.

“I am concerned that some natural science degrees have become four-year courses to compensate for problems with A-levels,” he said.

“Linguists complain about the inadequacy of university entrants’ foreign language skills. Mathematicians are concerned that current A-level questions are overly structured and encourage a formulaic approach, instead of using more open-ended questions that require advanced problem-solving… There is also growing concern that private schools routinely teach beyond A-levels, giving their pupils an advantage in the competition for university places.”

Last year, Ofqual carried out a three-month consultation into the future shape of A-levels.

Ministers have already accepted proposals – set out in the consultation – to place strict curbs on the number of exam resits, scrap January exams and cut down on the number of modules taken as part of each A-level course.

But on Wednesday Mr Gove will set out a further reform of the qualification – effectively turning the clock back to the 90s before exams were overhauled by Labour.

Controversially, the last Government split courses into two parts under its Curriculum 2000 project. Students took AS-levels in the first year and A2 exams in the second, with results combining to form the overall A-level grade.

But under the new plan:

• AS-levels will become a standalone qualification with results no longer counting towards final A-level marks;

• Pupils will be able to take new-style AS-levels over one or two years, with qualifications covering exactly half the content of the full version;

• Full A-levels will be completely separate from AS and turned into “linear” qualifications, with all exams sat at the end of the two-year course.

Many students are likely to take three A-levels and one or two AS courses – often unrelated to their three specialist subjects – to promote more breadth in their education.

The move is likely to prove controversial among some universities because it will stop them using AS marks to award provisional places on degree courses.

But in his letter, Mr Gove said that moving towards exams at the end of two-year courses would “allow students to develop a better understanding of their subject through the greater maturity that will be developed over two years of study”.

He also said that the Russell Group, which represents universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London and Durham, would form a new academic board to advise Ofqual on the content of A-levels.

It will focus principally on subjects commonly required for entry to its universities.

The move comes after it emerged that school-by-school league tables – being published on Thursday – will reveal how many teenagers gained good A-level passes in a string of rigorous subjects such as maths, English, the sciences, history, geography and languages. For the first time, it is intended to show many pupils leave schools “Russell Group ready”.

The new-style qualifications will be introduced in September 2015, with students taking full A-levels exams in the summer of 2017. It represents a 12-month delay compared with a previous timetable set out by the Government.

A-levels are currently sat by pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, although the latest reforms will only apply to England. /Telegraph