Responses from the announcement last week

These are a selection of quotes from the responses to the change to de-link Functional Skills from GCSE

does this mean i have to enter pupils for the ict functional skills, 

is it now just an extra and we don't if we wish not to have to enter pupils at all even in 2010 Louise

I think that the latest announcement will be the kiss of death for functional skills and will totally vindicate those Headteachers who have been sitting on the fence with the whole 14-19 agenda because they think that ‘it will all go away’! 

…. The point regarding the report card is pertinent as it will very much depend on how this is structured  ……

….. Ten years or so ago when Key Skills were introduced in Further Education, the rationale for their introduction was that employers when employing school leavers discovered a severe lack of basic skills, especially with numeracy, literacy and IT. When attending the first Functional Skills seminar six months ago, exactly the same words were used to explain the introduction of Functional Skills; presumably the last ten years has been a complete waste of time. It never ceases to amaze me that after eleven years in compulsory education and not grasping the basics; yet when they arrive in Further Education, “vocational” tutors are somehow expected to overcome all barriers and “cure” them of this unfortunate malady and in one or two years. Is it any wonder that that national success rates for Key Skills are so poor? 

So does this mean that the results of the whatsit report (the one from 2004 that found that passing GCSEs was too easy and that learners could effectively guess their way through it and pass with out the requisite skills) have now been kicked into the long grass for another year?  What does that say for the skills base of our workforce and the economic future of this country, especially in these hard times? Another influx of suitably skilled foreign workers? :-( !

Jim Knight - good to see that Mr M'Choakumchild has been thwarted in his gradgrindian ambitions

 ....  The Govt hasn’t yet got its act together on FS and is sending out confused messages. ...

Thanks for the update – extremely useful.