AS-level exams to be dropped from A-level courses in education shake-up

Education Secretary Michael Gove has announced major changes to A-level exams in England, with pupils beginning A-levels in September 2015 being affected by the changes.

The new qualification will see pupils taking exams at the end of their two-year courses instead of every year.

The AS–level qualification will also become stand-alone, with marks no longer counting towards final A-level grades. The first students will take the new exams in the summer of 2017.

Chris Keates, general secretary of the National Association Of School Masters/Union Of Women Teachers, said: “Rather than recycling the incoherent grumblings of a few isolated and unrepresentative academics, the Secretary of State should take note of the fact that there has been no clamour for reform of A-levels from the greater part of the higher education sector, and survey evidence has found little concern that A-levels fail to prepare learners for the demands of study at university level.”

Universities will no longer be able to select students on their predicted grades from their first year AS results. Institutions will have to come up with other methods of selecting students, such as references.

The changes to the exams have not being encouraged by employers. Ms Keates added: “Employers have not identified A-levels as problematic.” 

Daniel Cotter