03/04/2012

Education Secretary Calls For A-Level Changes

The UK's Education Secretary has said that current A-Level exams fail to prepare students for university life and has called for the examinations to be reviewed.

Michael Gove said, in a letter to an exam regulator, that universities should dictate the content of A-level papers and review them each year.

Mr Gove's letter, obtained by BBC Newsnight suggests formal control of A-level content would be taken away from exam boards and handed to universities.

It is understood that any changes would apply to English board exams but would obviously affect students in Northern Ireland and Wales, who also sit the exams.

This comes as a recent study suggested universities wanted A-levels to be more intellectually stretching and with less spoon-feeding from teachers.

(LB/GK)


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