The AQA exam board says the curriculum has become “too crowded” and that students and teachers want “updated and slimmed-down content”.
In its response to the curriculum and assessment review call for evidence, which closes today, AQA has added to the voices of education leaders who want to see a major curriculum cull.
AQA says the government should reduce subject content and the number of exam papers, but “be cautious about introducing coursework in its previous form - teachers don’t want it”.
It also reports teachers’ complaints that too much content is covered in courses such as GCSE history, or that some content - such as in GCSE English language, geography and religious studies - is “outdated or mechanistic”. It calls for a reduction in the number of GCSE papers, including in maths, from three to two.
“The sheer number of exams is overwhelming - some students are sitting 30 papers over two or three weeks,” one teacher told an AQA focus group. “By the end of it, they’re completely fatigued, and it feels more like a test of endurance than a measure of their abilities.”
‘Exams are efficient, fair and reliable’
AQA CEO Colin Hughes said: “Exams are efficient, fair and reliable, and they allow students to progress to the next stage in their lives. We agree with the government that we should be reforming in an evolutionary, not revolutionary, way - an approach that recognises there is much that is good with the current system.
But he added: “It’s clear, however, that the curriculum has become a bit too crowded, and that teachers and students would welcome updated and slimmed-down content. We believe this should be done on a subject-by-subject basis. There is also scope to reduce the number of exam papers.”
Reforms such as these could give students space to work on extended project qualifications, he said.
Teachers also told AQA they end up “teaching to the specification to the detriment of preparing young people for the next stage in their life”.
Trimming some subject content and reducing the number of exam papers on a subject-by-subject basis, the AQA report says, would free up teachers and students to work on wider skills.
But it stresses that “exams work” and that “GCSEs and A levels provide robust and respected academic routes and prepare students for further study”, as well as providing evidence to help policymakers target areas that need support.
Incorporating more technology into curriculum
Members of AQA’s student advisory group thought that incorporating more technology into the curriculum would help them progress in the workplace.
In its report, AQA also calls for the government to:
- Improve numeracy, literacy and digital fluency skills.
- Deal with the logistical challenges of access arrangements.
- Keep resits available for those students who want them, but provide alternatives.
- Reduce specialisation for A-level students, who should have a broader range of options.
- Reform vocational qualifications so that they are better understood and more flexible.
- Acknowledge a trade-off between mandating content that recognises diversity and giving teachers the autonomy to choose.
AQA used focus groups to garner views from 90 school leaders, teachers and exams officers, finding a consensus that reform is necessary and that the current system is failing too many students.
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