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The Times – It’s a myth that students can’t be stretched<br/> Britain asks its 16-year-olds to take only two academic subjects. That puts them and the whole country at a disadvantage, by Andrew Haldenby

Across the developed world 16-year-olds at school today are working towards a minimum of four, five or six stretching academic qualifications next summer. In countries such as Japan or Canada, the school systems have emphasised academic study for many years. In others, such as France or Germany, schools have recently raised the bar for fear of being left behind by their international competitors. In all cases, it is accepted without question that a broad core of academic achievement should be the result of students’ years in compulsory education.

In England it is very different. Here students are expected to study only two academic GCSEs (English and maths). The proportion of students taking a modern foreign language has fallen from about three quarters before 2004 to less than half. Only three in ten take history, with a similar proportion for geography. Of the ten largest developed countries, only Australia expects so little of its school leavers.

(Australia?! That is a low blow for an English newspaper!)

This is a result of conspiracy rather than cock-up. For the past 25 years, under governments of both main parties, the principle of education policy has been that large numbers of 16-year-olds — perhaps half — are unable to cope with academic study and must leave it behind as soon as is practical. Governments have pushed vocational qualifications despite the repeated failure to construct a robust alternative to GCSEs. They have skewed the market in favour of vocational qualifications by giving them a spurious “equivalence” to their academic counterparts. The facts have not been allowed to get in the way of the theory.

Sad.