All about new Advanced British Standard as Rishi Sunak plans to scrap A-levels
A-Levels will be scrapped and all pupils will study maths and English to 18 under a major education shake-up, Rishi Sunak has said.
The Prime Minister unveiled sweeping reforms to post-16 qualifications by merging A-levels and T-levels into a new "Advanced British Standard". Sixth formers will have to study five subjects, rather than three under the new plan. They will be divided into US-style 'majors' and 'minors', with pupils studying three 'major' subjects and two 'minors'. Every child will study maths and English in some form up to the age of 18.
But the new qualification won't come into force until the late 2030s, the Department for Education admitted. The small print reveals that five-year-olds starting primary school this term will be the first cohort to sit this qualification. Teaching unions reacted with horror at the announcement of "seismic" changes to exams and qualifications without any help for critical issues facing schools, such as the RAAC concrete crisis, teacher recruitment and lack of support for vulnerable pupils.
Mr Sunak has announced his ambition for kids to learn maths to 18 more than once - but unions warned him his sums don't add up as there aren't enough specialist teachers.In a speech to Conservative Party Conference, the PM said: "Our 16 to 19-year-olds spend around a third less time in the classroom than some of our competitors. We must change this, so with our Advanced British Standard, students will spend at least 195 hours more with a teacher."
He added: "A-level students generally only do three subjects compared to the seven studied by our economic competitors. The Advanced British Standard will change that too, with students typically studying five subjects and thanks to the extra teaching time we are introducing, the great breadth won't come at the expense of depth which is such a strength of our system."
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The announcement sparked fury from education unions. Paul Whiteman, General Secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said: "Today’s announcement shows just how out of touch this government has become with the teaching profession. There are so many immediate crises that schools are currently dealing with, from recruitment and retention, to crumbling school buildings and the lack of support for pupils with SEND. The government should be focusing on fixing those, not announcing yet another round of seismic changes to exams and qualifications."
Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said: "Rishi Sunak is doubling down on pie-in-the-sky education policies. He is completely out of touch with reality.
"The Government's long-standing failure to hit its own training targets, compounded by the haemorrhaging of teachers due to high workload and below inflation pay, made the Prime Minister's call in January for more maths teaching an impossible dream. His Government's reduced training targets were again missed this summer. The Advanced British Standard, briefed out last month and confirmed today, is even more misconceived and extends his detachment from reality. There is no magic wand to create English and maths teachers in sufficient numbers to educate 11-16 year olds, let alone at A-Level too."
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "We also support the principle of greater curriculum breadth in post-16 education as the current system is too narrow – at least partly because of previous government reforms which downgraded the status of AS-levels. However, while the principles of these proposals are good, the practicalities are daunting because of the severity of the teacher recruitment and retention crisis. There aren’t enough teachers to teach existing subjects never mind extend teaching on this scale."
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