“After all the effort that they went into, changing the grading system to 9-1, I think all that would have been for nothing.”

“Can we not change the education system every few years? GCSEs should not be scrapped.”

“The system is fine as it currently is. I swear T levels are also being introduced to help with the vocational aspect of our education system anyway...”

These are just some of the responses from students on the chat forum The Student Room to calls from Robert Halfon, the Conservative chairman of the Commons Education Select Committee, to scrap GCSEs.

The forum, which says it is the UK’s largest online student community, carried out a snap poll of 500 students, which revealed that 62 per cent want to keep GCSEs.

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The poll was carried out in response to Mr Halfon’s proposal that both GCSEs and A levels should be replaced with a system that meet the demands of an increasingly automated and digital age.

Why get rid of GCSEs?

Speaking on Monday, he said there was currently a focus on rote learning rather than skills such as communication, critical thinking, problem-solving and team-working, and called for a move from a “knowledge-rich to knowledge-engaged” curriculum - away from performance measures like the EBacc, which has put pressure on teachers to train to the test.

The calls were backed by the NEU teaching union, but opposed by Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, who gave Tes six reasons why Halfon was wrong.

Tes reporter Will Hazel has argued that Mr Halfon’s proposal is ”a pipe dream”.