The UK government will reduce GCSE exam time by up to three hours for the average student, marking the first major curriculum overhaul in over a decade. The Department for Education accepted recommendations from a comprehensive review that found current examination levels "excessive."
The reforms will cut the overall volume of testing at key stage 4 by approximately 10 per cent. Professor Becky Francis, who led the curriculum and assessment review, told reporters: «We are an international outlier in the number of exams and the volume of exams we have aged 16, only Singapore is anywhere near us.» She added: «It's a very intense and elongated time, as anyone who's been a parent of GCSE-age pupils knows, but we don't want to trade standards and reliability.»
New mandatory subjects
Schools will introduce compulsory citizenship classes covering how to identify fake news, financial management, climate change, legal matters, and electoral processes. The government will also abolish the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) performance measure, introduced in 2010 by former Education Secretary Michael Gove. All GCSE students will gain a statutory entitlement to study triple science.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: «It has been over a decade since the national curriculum was updated, and it's more crucial than ever that young people are equipped to face the challenges of today, so they can seize the exciting opportunities that life has to offer.» Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com and longtime advocate for financial education, welcomed the changes: «Our children are sent out into a world of scams, dodgy deals and debt, without the tools to cope,»
Mixed reactions
Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott criticized the reforms as «educational vandalism». Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders' union, said it was «immensely disappointing that the opportunity has been missed to reduce unnecessary primary school tests». The revised national curriculum will be published by spring 2027, with implementation for first teaching from September 2028.
Note: This article was created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
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