Learners coming into colleges have often been “tested to destruction”, Ofsted chair David Hoare has warned.

Speaking at last week’s Teach First Impact Conference in Leeds, he said that while there was a culture of viewing university as “the golden train”, half the population ended up in FE colleges. “And [when] these FE colleges take these young people, many of them have been tested to destruction,” he added.

Mr Hoare told the audience that he was beaten in school for not knowing his Latin vocabulary, until he learned to cheat.

“But when it came to Latin O level, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t pass it. I failed Latin five times at O level,” he said. “I was reminded of that with FE when you have had a tough time at GCSE and you have failed and you are told you are stupid.”

Achieving a C grade in maths and English was a difficult task, he stressed. “These are kids who are tested to destruction, bored silly, not excited, and required to sit in the classroom. Just like my Latin. No way. So, FE, we have this serious problem. Half go to university and half go to FE, and a lot of people would say we’re failing 50 per cent of the population.”

A new kind of GCSE

Mr Hoare made his comments as TES revealed last week that the new apprenticeships and skills minister, Rob Halfon, was “open-minded” about proposals to create a modular “adult GCSE” in English and maths. The idea, which was among recommendations made by Dame Sally Coates in her review of prison education published in May, was originally endorsed by the government. However, Dame Sally told TES that schools minister Nick Gibb had informed her he would not be approving new forms of the qualifications.

The idea of an adult GCSE was welcomed by the Association of Colleges. Last month, TES revealed that GCSE English and maths entries in colleges were up 40 per cent on last year, topping 200,000 for the first time.

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This is an article from the 5 August edition of TES. This week’s TES magazine is available in all good newsagents. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here