The pandemic has made us all reflect more on what we do, but more importantly, it has also made us reflect on why we do it. 

Which is why I’ve found myself questioning the nature of examinations more and more, and wondering whether GCSE examinations are something that we should overhaul to make them more relevant for a modern society. 

Should we do away with this standardised testing process in favour of a more holistic approach that doesn’t place so much strain on young people at a highly challenging time in their development? A new approach is needed, one that focuses more on developing young people’s resilience and other traits that will make them better, more productive members of the community. GCSEs are a throwback to a different time.

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The first exams were for the School Certificate, and then when the school leaving age was raised to 16, we designed CSEs for the less academic and O levels for the brighter students, ensuring everyone had a set of qualifications to demonstrate their abilities. 

The CSE broadly covered GCSE grades C-G or 4-1, and the O level covered grades A*-C or 9-4, but the two were independent qualifications, with different grading systems. In order to progress on to A levels and university, you had to sit O levels, and is CSEs didn’t allow anyone to achieve anything higher than a grade 4, it was felt that they were unfair and didn’t allow the higher-achieving cohorts of students sitting these exams the chance to demonstrate their abilities.

So Lord Baker created GCSEs to help this and create a fairer system for everyone, and in 1988 the first GCSE exam was sat. It was at a time when we still believed the brain was fixed by 16 and we now know that our brains are much more malleable and continue to develop way past that age. 

These qualifications were important when most people left academic study at 16, with around only 20-30 per cent going on to university. Now everyone has to stay in study until 18. So, why do we need them? 

Have they just become another filter that universities apply to sift through candidates and determine which ones they want? Is this what’s right for young people? Is our education system merely a filter for university? 

While going to university is important, we can’t base our whole education system on this, yet I feel that’s exactly what’s happened. And the impact of pushing our young people through standardised testing processes at such a young age, to the detriment of developing their wider attributes, is something that is potentially setting them up to fail. 

At 16, your brain is still forming. You’re still developing those essential traits that you will come to rely on more later in life, such as critical thinking, evaluating and analysing. 

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, a cognitive neuroscientist who specialises in the development of the teen brain, describes adolescence as a “perfect storm”, thanks to the simultaneous and sudden increase in “hormonal changes, neural changes, social changes and the pressures of life.” 

And yet, this is a time where we are making young people take as many as 10 GCSE subjects, for which they sit a range of high-pressure, standardised tests that will have a profound impact on the rest of their lives. 

Tests and more tests

In fact, Britain has some of the most examined young people in the world. But what do these exams really tell us about that young person? How deep does their learning go when they have to sit so many subjects, or do they just develop a shallow understanding that’s enough to get them through a test? 

I know from speaking to employers as part of my role as chief executive of Activate Learning that they struggle to find young employees who have those core skills that they feel are essential for them. 

Emotional intelligence, collaboration, decision making, adaptability, creativity, resilience, time management, a continuous learning mindset. How are we testing for these and providing feedback mechanisms on these skills? 

Well, in most academic settings, we’re not. Instead, we rely on the tried-and-tested route of assessment in a wide range of subjects, with no thought as to what kind of person comes out the other end. 

I think that this ought to stop. 

Isn’t it time we moved away from these old models and instead created a system that allows for the development of key academic subjects, such as maths, English and digital skills, but gives greater freedom to young people to learn more about themselves while honing these other skills? 

I, for one, believe it is. 

Sally Dicketts is chief executive of Activate Learning