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Schools' Failure in Core Subjects

Posted on: Friday, 21 October 2005, 09:00 CDT

By DEBORAH JAMES

SCHOOLS across Merseyside are failing to give children adequate numeracy and literacy skills, a report revealed last night.

An in-depth investigation suggests that maths and English are being ignored in favour of vocational subjects which push schools up Government league tables.

The league tables, published yesterday, work out a school's performance on the proportion of pupils who gain five or more A*-C grades at GCSE. A child can fail both English and maths but still be counted in the calculations.

And in most schools across Merseyside, the picture would be significantly worse if the core subjects were taken into account. A survey, commissioned by the BBC, found that of 38 Liverpool schools, 35 would have a weaker overall performance if English and maths GCSE results were included in league table calculations.

In Wirral, 22 out of 25 surveyed would have a poorer performance, as would 24 out of 26 schools in Sefton, all 12 schools surveyed in St Helens, and all 11 in Knowsley.

The figures suggest many schools will tumble down the league tables when rules change, forcing them to include English and maths in reporting the proportion of pupils who achieve five or more A* to C passes, in 2007.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, called for league tables to be scrapped in the light of the figures, published by the BBC.

Education experts say many schools benefited in the past from the fact that they could include results for courses deemed to be "equivalent" to GCSEs.

In particular, Intermediate GNVQs - which are often criticised as "soft" options - count as the equivalent of four good GCSEs.

Last night, Brian Christian, headteacher at Liverpool College in Mossley Hill agreed, despite the fact it would mean his school's rating would drop from 94% to 88%.

He said: "For us that would only mean about two pupils so it's not a big problem.

"It's probably sensible that the Government are going to do something about the way they calculate league tables.

"The fact that a vocational qualification in IT can count for the equivalent of four GCSE passes is ludicrous, it means it's very easy to manipulate the A* to C figures.

"Many schools have altered their curriculums to include more vocational qualifications because they know that will move them up the league tables."

But Jeff Clapham, exams officer for the Christian Fellowship School, which would see a significant fall in its A*-C pass rate from 81% - 57%, disagreed.

He said: "English and maths shouldn't be used as an overall benchmark to measure a school's performance.

"We should place equal value on other subjects, because every pupil is different.

"We have got several children who have dyscalcula and there is absolutely no point measuring their performance on maths because there is no way they would pass it.

"We have one girl who has these problems who got a D in maths this year, and for her that is a fantastic result."

Confederation of British Industry deputy director-general John Cridland said: "The education system is failing to deliver the right basic skills, with almost half of GCSE students failing to achieve adequate levels in numeracy and literacy.

"Ensuring league tables reflect the true picture in our schools is one step in the right direction.

"But we need action not words now from the Government to get to grips with the problem and deal with the root causes."

Shadow schools minister Mark Hoban said: "Schools have been chasing Government targets but at the cost of teaching our children English and maths.

"We need to allow schools to focus much more on identifying what they can do better.

"The Government's role in this is to provide rigour in exam standards and to give schools greater autonomy so that they can decide how to best help our students achieve those high standards."

Education Secretary Ruth Kelly hailed the rise in C-grade passes at GCSE.

"This is a tremendous achievement and one that schools, teachers and pupils deserve to be proud of," she said.

Ms Kelly stressed that the English and maths figures were a huge improvement on 1997 when just 35.6% of pupils scored five good GCSEs including these core subjects.

"This year we have seen the biggest single jump in achievement for over a decade, along with increases in the number achieving highly in the key subjects of English and maths," she said. The proportion of pupils passing GCSEs at any grades rose to 96.3%, up from 95.9% in 2004.

Figures for the A-Level results showed a surprise drop in the number of pupils passing at least two A-Levels this year.

In 2004, 92% of candidates passed the equivalent of at least two A-Levels at any grade.

But this year the figure fell slightly to 91.9%, according to the provisional statistics released today.

The figure may rise when the final statistics are released.

More teenagers scored three straight A grades at A-Level this year - 9.2%, compared with 9% in 2004

Source: Daily Post; Liverpool

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