18 August 2006
The school curriculum needs to be reformed to encourage more young people to stay in education after the age of 16, the government's favourite think-tank said this week.
As this year's A-level results were published, the Institute for Public Policy Research called for the qualification to be phased out in favour of a 'British Baccalaureate' comprising academic and vocational elements.
The IPPR said that one in four 16–18 year olds did not stay on – a figure that has remained static since 1997.
Richard Brooks, IPPR associate director, said: 'Practically all young people in the UK should now be in education or training until they are 18 or 19 years old. Yet not only are too many missing out, but current policies don't seem to be increasing the numbers of those who stay on in learning until the end of their teenage years.
'The new 14–19 diploma will not flourish alongside an unreformed system of A-levels and it is time for a more radical approach.'
The government disappointed many education experts when it rejected former chief schools' inspector Sir Mike Tomlinson's recommendation to scrap
A-levels and GCSEs. But ministers have committed themselves to a review in 2008 of the new A-level diploma, which has been introduced in parallel to the existing system.
The IPPR report recommends that the funding gap between schools and colleges be closed and suggests that only schools that are able to offer a wide range of options for pupils in the lower attainment range should be able to establish sixth forms.
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