Press Release

GCSE results

Thursday, August 21 2008

Commenting on this years GCSE results Christine Blower, Acting General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Europe’s largest teaching union said: "Congratulations to teachers, young people and parents on this year’s GCSE results. I welcome the Governments recognition of all the hard work that has gone into them by both teachers and pupils, and I hope that these outstanding achievements will put paid to the annual ill informed criticism of exam standards.

"We still do have a great concern about the Government’s arbitrary target of branding all schools as failures who do not achieve 30% A-Cs at GCSE. We hope that those schools which have not got the 30% do not suffer any decrease in their intake, and are offered encouragement to build on their success, not threatened with closure.

"All schools are committed to doing the absolute best for their young people but not all operate within a level playing field. That must be taken into account by Government when it uses such a crude measure of evaluating schools. Grabbing a quick headline on being tough on standards is no substitute for a fair evaluation of our schools and making sure that every young person receives the education they deserve."