ASCL Northern Ireland query to DE (28 May 2021) re GCSE maths and DE holding response
(submitted by ASCL NI Regional Officer Robert Wilson)
I have received a few queries from members about GCSE maths.
Obviously, opinion is divided as follows:
- Maths is core and covering and assessing the full course is a crucial passport for young people.
- Unreasonable to expect maths teachers and students to cover the whole course.
I note in the CCEA document of yesterday:
Examination aids will be provided (as per minister’s statement)
I would be keen to know if your team has made any progress on the following from the minister’s statement.
I have also instructed my officials to explore what additional support might be provided to schools to help them in preparing Year 12 students for GCSE Maths.
DE reply
It is work in progress! We have a potential source of funding and approach in mind. We will work to develop and put proposals to the Minister over the coming weeks.
I thought it might be helpful to ASCL to set out in a bit more detail for you the rationale for the Minister’s decision. The Department and CCEA gave close consideration to the awarding arrangements for GCSE Mathematics in summer 2022. Due to the completely unique structure of this qualification, with many different pathways at different tiers or levels of entry, the approach of omitting a unit could have unfortunately had negative consequences for learners, such as narrowing the pathways available. Such an approach would have made it potentially more difficult for our young people to achieve the highest grades in mathematics. For example, if Units M1 to 4 were omitted, only candidates taking M8 could achieve a Grade A* or A. This would disadvantage candidates who would have wished to enter units targeting different grades. Candidates entering Units 4 and 7 have access to overall Grade A even though Unit 7 has B as highest notional unit grade. In Summer 2019 series, 707 candidates entered these units and achieved a Grade A. The omission of M1–M4 also has a range of other potential negative consequences for learners. It would for example result in the non-calculator weighting of the GCSE Mathematics assessments increasing to proportionally above what typically would be expected. This has the potential to disadvantage learners who perform better on assessments using calculators.
Across all GCSE subjects, candidates will complete a minimum of 60% of assessment within all GCSEs in summer 2022. This bespoke approach for CCEA GCSEs balances significant reductions to assessment with ensuring the continued worth, validity and portability of these important qualifications. Again, due to its unique structure, omission of a unit in GCSE Mathematics would remove assessment of 45% of this key passport qualification, which is required for a number of Higher Education courses such as nursing and teaching. This would be greater than in any other GCSE subject. For these reasons, it was decided that omitting a unit was not the right approach for GCSE Maths.
The Department and CCEA also gave consideration to the possibility of content reduction in GCSE Mathematics for example removal of some topics from both or one units as a means of reducing the burden on students and staff. This approach, however, is not being applied to GCSEs more generally and raises a number of concerns. Notably, candidates who will be Year 12 in September are mid-course. This means some schools will have already covered the omitted topics, others will not. This potentially advantages some candidates and disadvantages others. This cannot be mitigated, unlike in unit omission which can mitigate such disadvantage by providing the option to sit all units.
Omission of content or topics across units also has significant implications in regard to pupils entering Year 11 in September. To be available for those entering Year 12 in September 2021, content or topic reduction would also need to be permitted for those entering Year 11 in September, or alternatively they would have to be prohibited from entering GCSE Mathematics modules. To prohibit all Year 11 entries is not practical due to the significant numbers sitting GCSE Maths in Year 11 in order to proceed to Further Maths in Year 12. It would also impact on opportunities to take modules for other Year 11 candidates. To allow content omission for some of the Year 11 cohort who take the modules in Year 11 but not others who will not enter modules until their Year 12 is problematic. It is unfair to treat candidates within the same year group differently. To alleviate this concern and carry content omission forward to 2022/23, simply raises the same issue with subsequent Year 11 cohorts. A further alternative to have different sets of papers for different cohorts is also problematic and starts to undermine the integrity and validity of the qualification. Content omission also raises significant issues in regard to resits for candidates in Year 12 in 2021/22 – they would potentially need bespoke resit papers with omitted content in 2022/23 or be expected to cover all content for the resit.
Given all of these factors, we believe that provision of examination aides is the best approach available in regard to GCSE Maths. We will update you further when we can in regard to additional support for schools.