A Level Reforms: A 16 year old's opinion

The government are implementing the plans for scrapping January Modules for A level from September 2013 and I am absolutely outraged that they will affect OUR year who began our A-level studies this September. We will not have January exams in their second year as expected and instead as they will be taken all at once in June.

I agree with the government when they believe that the "resit culture" of many students nowadays needs to change and perhaps only having summer exams could be the way forward. However, I am extremely concerned about the fact that these plans are going to be introduced half way through our A level courses. Next year, due to the A levels that I have chosen, I am going to have a total of 10 exams in the summer, 6 of which are just maths! The syllabuses that we are currently studying are designed to be tested in chunks, hence why there are multiple modules. Surely then it's ridiculous that we are taking modular exams in a linear format?

Even Chris Keates, the head of the NASUWT teachers' union said that teachers and students would now face "huge turbulence and uncertainty", which will prove incredibly true for our year in particular since our teachers have already started teaching the courses with the plan of having January exams in year 13. I do not understand why the government has implemented these changes two months into the start of term - it does not make logical sense! Perhaps it's due to the looming UK general elections in 2015?

The point that Secretary of State for Eduction Michael Gove is missing is that we are not just a statistic on graph that needs to be lowered in order to kurb "grade inflation" and make their political party look better- this is the future of thousands of 16-17 year olds that they are tampering with. Another example where Ofqual succumbed to external pressures to lower "grade inflation" and consequently, our year bite the bullet was the fiasco with last summer's English Language GCSEs. Many English papers which should have achieved a crucial pass at C grade were marked down to a D grade, devastating further education and employment prospects for many 16 year olds. I can clearly envision a similar fiasco happening to our year again with these A level reforms and it is not fair on us.

I think I speak on behalf of all the 16-17 year olds in the country when I say all we wish for the government to do is to let us do our January exams in our second year of A levels and start afresh with the reforms in September 2013 for students in their first year of studies. Here is my The Student Rooms post on the same topic; as you can see, we all share the same opinion. This is our future that they are meddling with- please do not ruin it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this - I strongly hope that the government will take our opinion into consideration and listen to US, the young people of this country you are affecting, rather than just using us as a tactic in their political football.


Rebecca