Labour disrupting children’s education23 Nov 2024 15:14
Thousands of GCSE pupils pushed out of private school by Labour’s tax raid face failing their exams because of the disruption, Keir Starmer has been warned.
Councils are struggling to match pupils with local state schools using the same exam boards as they deal with a bottleneck of applications ahead of the Government’s 20pc levy on school fees beginning in January.
It is of particular concern for the more than 30,000 pupils who study IGCSEs, a qualification typically only taught in private schools after it was phased out of state schools in 2018.
Some pushed out by fee rises face joining a school that has been following a different curriculum, leaving them to choose between dropping a year to learn the content from scratch or attempting to play catch-up and risk underperforming in their exams.
Julie Robinson, the chief executive of the Independent Schools Council (ISC), which represents 1,400 schools, has called for an urgent meeting with ministers to help discuss “how disruption could be avoided for Year 10 and Year 11 students”.
She said: “This is a particular issue given the mid-year introduction. Thousands of students’ GCSE results could be put at risk, with a knock-on effect for their future studies.”
More badly thought out vindictive Labour policies.