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Children, Schools and Families

My Lords, there has to be a fly in every ointment, I suppose. Given what was said in the Statement—the greater emphasis on maths, the relaxation in the rigours of the national curriculum to allow more space for schools, personalisation of learning and various other directions—can we hope for a proper consideration of the place of IGCSE in schools? It is such a successful examination—a great British examination—taken up by over 100 independent schools now as providing something over and beyond GCSE. It seems ridiculous that we should ban it in state schools, when Botswana is putting all its pupils through IGCSE maths. We are limiting our ambitions to mastering basic maths. We must have something that goes further than that and allows the expression of the great achievement that is possible by so many pupils in the examination structure. IGCSE seems to me, and to many independent schools, to fill that role.