14-19 Diplomas Rushed And Confused

Paul Holmes writes...

"The Education and Skills Select Committee Report on 14-19 Diplomas is a stark warning about the dangers facing any rushed and/or botched introduction of the new system says Paul Holmes MP, Member of the Select Committee:

"As a former teacher and Head of Sixth Form myself, I was alarmed throughout the evidence sessions, at the obvious parallels with my personal experience of the introduction of GNVQs and of Curriculum 2000.

"Curriculum 2000 (AS Levels) was introduced too quickly, without piloting and with inadequate training for the teachers delivering it. Many of the same problems are apparent at this stage in the preparations for next year's Diplomas. Many witnesses expressed alarm at this and called for either a year's delay or at worst small scale pilots. Ministers and DfES officials were alarmingly complacent about this in their evidence. Worse still is the confusion over what exactly the Diplomas are meant to be. Ken Boston, Head of QCA, told us they were meant to teach more academic thinking skills rather being purely vocational. Other witnesses insisted they must be vocational. This reflects the confusion that hit GNVQs, which were steadily pushed from being vocational courses into more theoretical and primarily desk based academic courses. Alan Johnson's claim to the Committee that Diplomas encapsulate most of the Tomlinson proposals is a nonsense. Tomlinson proposed a common overarching Diploma that could be reached via traditional A levels or Vocational courses or a mixture of both. The Government is instead simply introducing yet another hybrid 'vocational' course which provides a completely different qualifications route alongside A Levels, B Techs and all other existing courses.

"The clear danger is that in a few years we will once again be back to square one -unsuccessfully trying to invent a 'new' vocational course that will be accepted as the equal of A Levels and so end the academic snobbery that bedevils the English education system. "