Teachers have backed a GCSE reform in favour of restoring the love of learning and removing the ‘exam factory culture’ causing mental health issues.
The National Education Union agreed that the awarding of grades last year exposed the inadequacies of the examination system with a ‘fundamental reform of the examination system’ required which includes research into alternatives to GCSE’s and A levels.
The NEU executive was motioned to campaign for “wider, more flexible curricula” which in turn “begins to restore a love of learning”.
Denis White explained that an exam which is taken in whole at the end of a course, then giving grades only comparable to other students, is a high risk system which doesn’t allow all students to exhibit there highest strengths. Denis White described that this creates “a culture of the exam factory” which causes mental health issues and drives teachers away from their profession.