Robert Jenrick, Minister of State for Immigration, UK Government, speaking to Victoria Derbyshire on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, today confirmed the real reason for the proposal to abolish A Levels in favour of a new British Baccalaureate: the Advanced British Standard qualification.
Asked, with some incredulity, whether the abolition of A Levels is really that important, in the context of global affairs and a cost-of-living crisis, Jenrick responded passionately that “yes”, the abolition of A Levels is vital for the following reason:
“I think people care passionately about education and the prospects for their children. People want to see good technical and vocational qualifications that are given exactly the same parity of esteem that is given to academic qualifications like A Levels.
“If you come to my constituency, where the majority have not gone to university, and many young people have qualifications in technical and vocational education, they want to see those qualifications have the same esteem as A Levels. They do not believe in the constant drive for young people to go to university as the only route to being successful in life.
“If we bring academic and technical education together into a globally respected Baccalaureate qualification, that combines both academic and technical education, that is a very positive thing.”
Jenrick’s explanation is the first unambiguous explanation by any UK government minister for the reasons behind the UK government’s move to transform British education by replacing the current divided system of academic A Levels, and technical BTEC and T Levels, with a single Baccalaureate qualification.
It seems now that there is a single and clear philosophical and practical justification behind the move – to provide equality of opportunity for all young people.
The abolition of A Levels in favour of the Advanced British Standard Baccalaureate
Those, including many parents and educators, who have argued consistently that British education favours “Gold standard” A Levels at the cost of damaging the life chances of the vast majority of children who are technically gifted, may well agree. Many of the UAEs most outstanding schools today insist on providing both technical and academic stream qualification pathways to ensure that they meet the needs, potential, gift and ambitions of all children. The UK government’s move recognises that the co-existence of two alternative qualification pathways simply has not worked, with many still, wrongly, assuming that academic qualifications are better.
Longstanding business and industry calls for recognising that globally competitive economies require a pool of “all- the-talents” have welcomed the move. Many employers have been moving to offering Degree Apprenticeships, in which students face no costs of further education, in part because of a frustration at the limitations of academic education without technical context.
The current UK government are, with the move to an Advanced British Standard Baccalaureate replacement of A Levels, BTEC and T Levels, effectively pronouncing the move by previous governments to push all students to university and academic qualifications to have been a failure for children.
Top Schools Awards
The Top Schools Award for Best School in the United Arab Emirates for Technical, industry and Vocational Education
and the Top Schools Award for Best British School in the United Arab Emirates
will be announced on 9th November 2023.
Further information
Read more about the proposed new Advanced British Standard Baccalaureate replacement of A Levels here.
For those able to access BBC iPlayer, you can access Laura Kuenssberg here.
You can find out the finalists for The Top Schools Awards 2023 – 2024 here.
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