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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Simon Jenkins

GCSEs harm our young people. Ministers should have the guts to abolish them – and start again

Pupils sit a GCSE exam at Maidstone grammar school in Kent.
Pupils sit a GCSE exam at Maidstone grammar school in Kent. Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Just say it. Spit it out. Abolish GCSE. It has nothing to do with young people or their advancement. It has everything to do with quantifying, measuring, controlling and governing their preparation for life.

Last year, Prof Becky Francis was asked by the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, to draw up proposals for the curriculum in England’s secondary schools. In her interim report out this week she recognised the challenge, but then took fright.

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