ACME Welcomes Piloting of Pair of Mathematics GCSEs
12 December 2008
The Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education (ACME),
responding to today's announcement from the government that a pair
of GCSEs in mathematics would be piloted from 2010, welcomes the
news as a positive step.
However, the announcement raises questions over the government's
long-term commitment to a pair of GCSEs, with the news that the
pair will not be ready for first teaching until 2015, and the
additional announcement that a new single GCSE will be introduced
from 2010.
Commenting on the announcement, Chair of ACME Professor Dame
Julia Higgins FRS said:
"The government have finally recognised one of the long-standing
demands of the mathematics community - the desire for a second
GCSE. We welcome the government's decision to pilot the pair, as we
believe they will deliver a better mathematically equipped
generation of students".
The pair of GCSEs - devised after intense work between ACME and
the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) - will fulfil one
of the outstanding recommendations of Professor Adrian Smith's 2004
report Making Mathematics Count. In the four years since
the report was published, thorough and exhaustive effort by the
mathematics community has gone in to devising two mathematics GCSEs
which satisfied the government's criteria. Previous efforts have
met policy-related obstacles and as such reaching this position
must be recognised as a major achievement by the mathematics
community and its partners. However, ACME also firmly believes that
critical lessons need to be learnt from the failures of previous
pilots.
The pair of GCSEs is designed to address the long-standing
drawbacks of the single mathematics GCSE. It has long been felt
that a single GCSE does not reward the level of difficulty and the
workload compared to other subjects, and that a pair will help
address this. As a result, ACME believes the pair will better
challenge those at the upper end of the ability range, while more
fairly rewarding those at the lower end, and appeal to students
with different interests. In addition, the introduction of a second
GCSE will allow far more focus on mathematics in context, with a
deeper understanding of processes and applications than is
currently the case.
However, Dame Julia, commenting on the 2015 timescale, said:
"We are puzzled at the proposed timescales for rolling out
the pair - to wait until 2015 for first teaching, with first awards
being 9 years from now is simply too protracted. Efforts must focus
on bringing forward the date for rollout of the pair".
Commenting on the impact of this timescale, Dame Julia said:
"The UK economy will face the consequences of millions of
students over the next 9 years sitting a single GCSE which will not
deliver the deeper understanding of mathematics and its
applications that is desperately required"
ACME believes there may be ways of shortening the process, and
is committed to working with relevant stakeholders to discuss how
it might be achieved.
ACME also questions the decision by the government to push ahead
with a new single GCSE in 2010. We believe the new single GCSE will
undermine the success of the pair, and it remains uncertain whether
the single GCSE will be retained should the piloting of the pair be
successful.
Commenting on the new proposed single GCSE, Dame Julia said:
"Any structure where a single GCSE in mathematics competes with
the pair is unacceptable. A single GCSE will not deliver the
benefits of the pair, and we will be pressing the government to
support only the pair should the piloting be successful. Government
would be foolish to retain a single GCSE longer than is absolutely
necessary"
ACME also believes that the future of mathematics - not just
GCSE - is critically important to both higher education and the
nation's future skills base. Therefore we welcome the involvement
of DIUS alongside the traditional partners of QCA, Ofqual and
DCSF.
Ends
Notes
- 1. The Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education (ACME) is an
independent committee, based at the Royal Society and operating
under its auspices, which acts as a single voice for the
mathematical community on mathematics education issues, seeking to
improve the quality of such education in schools and colleges. It
advises Government on issues such as the curriculum, assessment and
the supply and training of mathematics teachers. ACME was
established by the Joint Mathematical Council of the UK and the
Royal Society, with the explicit support of all major mathematics
organisations, and is funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation.
The current chair is Professor Dame Julia Higgins FRS FREng.
- 2. The pair of GCSEs was drawn up by a sub-group of ACME
members working closely with colleagues in QCA. The pair is broadly
"Formal Mathematics" (which focuses on the rigorous and coherent
nature of mathematics) and "Contextual Mathematics" (which focuses
on the application of mathematics). The pair is designed to
emphasise process skills in the application of mathematics in one
of the pair, and to emphasise process skills of reasoning in
mathematics in the other.
- 3. Both GCSEs are intended to be a qualification in its own
right and neither of them should be regarded as a lesser
qualification. It is intended the majority of students will study
for both GCSEs, and that students who obtain both qualifications
will be well equipped for further study at Level 3 or above.