HARROW School has become the latest of a growing number of independent schools to abandon the maths GCSE in favour of an alternative international exam.
The leading public school decided to adopt the maths IGCSE, which is similar to the old O level, after deciding that the compulsory coursework was not contributing to the pupils’ understanding.
The popularity of the new maths qualification, introduced by the exam board Edexcel last year, comes amid complaints that GCSE maths is getting easier. Last week it also emerged that students can gain an A grade with just 45 per cent.
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Barnaby Lenon, headmaster of Harrow School, said that the switch was entirely down to the coursework. “It was time-consuming and taught them very little about maths,” he said. “We also hope that those boys who continue their studies will be better prepared for the A level.”
Mr Lenon explained that while coursework improved a child’s organisation and self-motivation skills, because they are largely guided by a teacher, it is difficult to measure how much of the subject they understand.
“Coursework in some subjects has real added value, such as in art and design technology,” he said. “In geography, where original research is carried out and properly managed, that too can have benefits, but in others like maths, science and history the students are simply going through the motions.”
Harrow, which was founded in 1572 by Elizabeth I and is the alma mater of Churchill, Byron and Pandit Nehru among others, follows in the footsteps of Cheltenham College and Winchester.
Oundle school in Peterborough adopted Edexcel’s IGCSE in maths, last year.
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David Raftery, assistant head of maths, said, “In particular we felt the coursework had no educational value, it was affecting the enthusiasm of our staff and so the enjoyment of the pupils.”
Pupils from Oundle and Cheltenham sat the exam for the first time this summer after taking the course in a year. Across 110 countries, Edexcel expects up to 20,000 students to sit IGCSE maths by 2004/5.
Mr Raftery said that the school had “no regrets” about the new exam which means a little less trigonometry, but three new courses including an introduction to calculus, function notation and doing sets, such as Venn diagrams.
The IGCSE was originally designed for international students wanting to come to British universities and institutes of higher education, who are unable to undertake coursework. It has been approved by ten universities, including Oxford, Cambridge and Durham and is offered by both the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate as well as Edexcel.
Mike Tomlinson, the former chief inspector of England’s schools, who is conducting a review of 14-19 education, last year welcomed the new exam, saying that coursework needed to be “substantially pruned”.
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While independent schools can sit the maths IGCSE, state schools will not receive government funding for the course, because it is not yet approved by the exam monitoring body.