A hurdle too far
FOR the first time pupils who didn’t manage a C grade in maths and English GCSEs will be forced to keep plugging away and retake them until they pass.
The purpose is to stop the epidemic of illiterate and innumerate teens.
The idea’s fine on paper but where does it leave those of us bewildered by maths or hopeless at English?
I was able to read English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, because I had a C in biology O level. Oxbridge demanded maths or a science.
I failed maths and frankly, if today’s requirements had applied I’d still be at school, frenziedly taking and retaking the exam, frantically hoping to pass one day.