At Oxford Home Schooling, we have supported students following a wide range of GCSE and (latterly) IGCSE courses for more than 30 years, and we have no vested interest in either system. But there is no evidence that GCSEs are harder (Letters, 28 August). Where the specifications are not interchangeable (as they often are), the exam boards have done everything they can to make them equally difficult and to ensure that a grade 7, for example, in one is comparable to a grade 7 in the other.
Nor is there any evidence that private schools and their students are motivated by the chance to do coursework, or that that would give them an advantage. In fact a high proportion of IGCSE candidates follow the non-coursework option.
