U.K. to Strengthen Education for Bright Pupils

The British government announced a radical educational reform plan, pointing out that students` educational opportunity is expanded by intensified vocational education in secondary education, and outstanding students could skip to college level exams.

The Education Secretary, Estelle Morris announced a Green Paper for the 14 to 19 year-old age group, which introduced a `fast track system for outstanding students` that enables brighter pupils to skip the GCSE exams to A-Level. GCSE is the graduation exam for secondary education and the A-Level is the preliminary exam for college. Students aged over 14 can choose the vocational education path like tourism and industrial technology up until the age of 19. Hence, there will be a change in the educational tradition where students can finish their education at age 16 if they choose employment over college.

The reform plan intensifies early language education, which previously started at the secondary education, by making it compulsory for every 7-year-old student, but the student is excluded on choosing vocational education at age 14.

The plan also introduces `Super A Level` which is more discriminative than the GCE-A Level, which is an exam for college admission, to help colleges select good students.

Education Secretary Estelle Morris said, "This plan aims to provide flexibility for students to develop their intellectual talents and vocational ability by improving the rigid system."

Phil Willis, the spokesperson for the Educational Policy Bureau of the opposition Liberal Democrat Party criticized the plan, saying, "The plan disregards the necessary basic education needs and other problems like the scarcity of teachers and lack of reliability of the examination."

eodls@donga.com