New school‐leaving exam. on course

The GCSE will go ahead on the timetable set for it. There can be no going back, and no hanging back. The GCSE will be a single system with differentiated assessment, which will allow candidates at each level of ability to show what they know, understand, and can do. We have had hitherto an examination system the main effect of which, in the middle and lower grades, is to certify poor performance. The GCSE will be differentiated so that pupils — the lower attainers, the average, the above‐average, the ablest — will be able to show achievement in positive terms; it will certify success.