GCSE coursework 'could be abolished'

Those who responded to the call for views on coursework will be interested in this Press Association report, which I saw in The Guardian:

Press Association
Friday March 31, 2006

Coursework could become a thing of the past for GCSE students in many subjects, the government's exams watchdog said.

Ken Boston, the chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, said coursework would remain in place only where it was the most reliable way of ranking pupils.

In an interview with the Times Educational Supplement, he said: “In many areas of the curriculum, coursework is the only and the best way to assess. But in others it is not.”

He did not rule out abolishing coursework for subjects including English literature, although it was thought that maths GCSE would be more likely to revert to an exam-only qualification.

Last year, the education secretary, Ruth Kelly, ordered a review of the coursework content for GCSEs after the QCA warned that cheating and internet plagiarism were on the rise.

The QCA will launch a series of consultations on the future of coursework in GCSE subjects.

Vermont Latin teacher – latest

Apparently the teacher suspended for using Pompeii graffiti is back at work. Rogue Classicism reproduces an article from the Times Argus.

When I emailed the school principal he wrote back, briefly, in Latin: Non possum respondere hoc tempore.