A three-year ‘baccalaureate’ should replace A-levels, BTECs, T-Levels and apprenticeships, a think tank has said, Schools Week reports.
A new report from EDSK, says the dominance of A-levels has reduced the prestige of other options, and limits curriculum breadth.
It is the second instalment in a two-part series looking at the future of education. The first part previously called for GCSEs to be scrapped in favour of computer-based assessments.
Tom Richmond, EDSK director and former adviser to former education secretaries Michael Gove and Nicky Morgan, said:
“If the current government is serious about boosting technical education, it must end the political obsession with A-levels by introducing a ‘baccalaureate’ that creates a level playing field for a broad range of rigorous academic, applied and technical courses.”
The report recommended a three-year “baccalaureate” for 15 to 18 year olds with maths and English compulsory to 18.
Students would also be able to “mix and match” academic and technical courses.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told Schools Week there was an “undoubted need to address the narrowness and snobbery” of the current system, and that “for far too long vocational subjects and qualifications have been perceived as having less worth than academic subjects”.