A “national conversation” has been launched in Wales to give teachers and pupils - and all those with an interest in education - the chance to have their say on a major overhaul of GCSEs.
GCSEs are being reformed in the country so they chime with the new curriculum, Curriculum for Wales (CfW), which started being introduced in Welsh schools last month.
It has been decided that the GCSE brand will be retained in Wales: in a consultation that ran from November 2019 to February 2020, 77 per cent of those who responded said they either strongly agreed or agreed that the name should be kept. However, GCSEs will “change to reflect the changing curriculum”.
The new qualifications will be taught for the first time in September 2025, when the first full cohort to experience CfW is due to start Year 10.
Now Qualifications Wales wants feedback on the content and ways of assessing the new qualifications through its new consultation and Have Your Say website.
Consultation on GCSE reforms in Wales
Respondents will be able to give their views on proposals for each new GCSE - 26 in total - or provide feedback on the changes overall.
In October 2021 Qualifications Wales published a report detailing the future range of subjects that should be available as GCSEs and a small range of related made-for-Wales qualifications that should be available alongside them.
The proposal that “divided opinions the most and attracted the highest level of disagreement”, according to the report, was for a new combined language and literature GCSE in English, which would be roughly equivalent to 1.5 standard GCSEs.
Just 30 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the change.
The proposed qualifications include other new combined GCSEs in the sciences (incorporating biology, chemistry and physics), Cymraeg (Welsh) language and literature, and mathematics and numeracy.
Qualifications Wales also wants people across the country to share their views on the content and assessment of brand-new GCSE subjects, including social studies, engineering, film and digital media, and dance.
Emyr George, Qualifications Wales’ director of qualifications policy and reform, said: “We want young people and schools to be able to choose from a range of bilingual qualifications, which offer something for everyone. Whatever their interests and wherever they want to go next, there will be a qualification that appeals.
“We have worked closely with a wider range of sector experts, including teachers and academics, to reimagine what future GCSEs should look like in terms of their design, content and assessment. Now we want to hear from as many people as possible about what they think of the proposals.”
Jeremy Miles, the Welsh government minister for education and Welsh language, said the qualifications needed to be reformed to “align with the ambition and ethos of Curriculum for Wales”.
“This consultation is the next step in the journey to reforming these qualifications, and I encourage everyone who is interested to get involved in this conversation, from teachers and parents to young people and employers. Have your say to help shape future qualifications,” he said.
