Transitioning from GCSEs to A-Levels is an exciting process. Under the current system, most students pick three A-Levels with no subjects imposed. This allows for academic freedom, through the ability to progress in what you already enjoy and to expand your knowledge in new areas.
My main appeal of college was no longer having to study maths. Only having to persevere with the awful thing until I was 16 gave me the drive to pass my exams, as I yearned for the day I could be liberated from this subject. However, under Rishi Sunak’s new proposal, 16 year olds will no longer have this emancipation.
The ‘Advanced British Standard' was announced by the Prime Minister in early October, and entails 16 to 18 year olds studying a broader range of subjects - an increase from three to five. Within these subjects, compulsory English and Maths lessons will be included, and facilitated by an additional 195 hours a week with a teacher.
It is common practice for 18 year olds to study numeracy and literacy across the world. Sunak has claimed this puts pupils in the UK at a disadvantage, so has pushed for a ‘British Baccalaureate’ style of education. This bears similarity to the International Baccalaureate, which is offered by some private schools in the UK and in 143 countries globally. This post-16 education involves studying six subjects, including two languages, social sciences, experimental sciences, and mathematics, with the choice of an arts subject. This suggests that state-school students have been at a disadvantage to their privately-educated counterparts granted the International Baccalaureate within the UK. So, will Sunak’s plan be helpful?
Despite the claim that it will increase meritocracy, I feel it will further disadvantage British students. Many teenagers already find the jump from GCSEs to A-Levels difficult, and the additional contact hours will only exacerbate this.
These influential years of your educational journey should be enjoyable, and allow you to take your own direction. Without the current academic freedom, progression and expansion, I fear education will fail to engage the next generation, and become more of a discouraging chore than an exciting pathway.
Edited By Larissa Hurt