Westminster hasn’t made life easy if you are a 16-year-old. Michael Gove’s education reforms are well underway but the reorganisation of A-level courses is yet to be implemented. Everything about A-levels is changing.
Until recently, you took an AS, then an A2, counting as two halves of an A-level qualification. However, under Gove’s reforms, these are being uncoupled to create new linear courses, with one exam taken at the end. This change is being phased in over the course of three years so I find myself in an awkward limbo period with only seven of the 23 subjects offered at my school due to become linear in 2015.
With the three sciences and history among those becoming linear but languages and maths among those remaining non-linear, most students will find themselves taking some combination of the two. This makes the question of how many A-levels to take in the first year of Sixth Form difficult to generalise when some subjects cannot be dropped.
Many students are afraid of these demanding courses and difficult exams. The linear nature of the courses does not give the more cautious among us the safety net of dropping a riskier subject after they have their AS qualification. Given the choice between the two, some might find themselves taking subjects they would not have otherwise.
The timing of the next general election means we do not know who will be in power the summer before I start my A-levels. If Tristram Hunt becomes Education Secretary next year, he has made it clear the reforms will be scrapped. Unless Labour manage to overhaul the reforms in time for the start of the school year, those taking linear A-level exams in 2017 will be the first and only year to do so – surely a terrible situation to be in?
Such confusion creates an air of frustration, leading schools to look further afield than A-levels for 16+ qualifications. With my school’s English department opting for the Cambridge Pre-U and many schools offering the International Baccalaureate, there are lots of choices to be made, each with their own implications. At 16, you want to know you are making the right decision, but with so many factors to consider, it has become much harder to be sure.
The policymakers do not seem to appreciate fully the confusing picture they have created for Gove’s guinea pigs. In the tough world of A-level marking, the Government would struggle to achieve anything higher than a C with an accompanying remark of ‘has potential, but must do better’.
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