Sensitivity concern over RS exam

The QCA says coursework generally has become "less valid"

Coursework in religious studies GCSEs has been scrapped because of concerns children are being left to study "sensitive" topics unsupervised.

Exam watchdogs headed by England's Qualifications and Curriculum Authority say they were bowing to concerns raised about planned changes to 28 subjects.

They plan to replace coursework in most GCSEs with tightly controlled in-school assessments of each module.

But in religious studies they had intended to retain 20% coursework.

The concern was that young people would be dealing with sensitive topics without teacher guidance QCA spokeswoman

But the QCA said that following an overwhelming number of objections it would not be pushing ahead with the original plans.

A QCA spokeswoman said it did not want to ask young children to look at "sensitive" subjects without teacher supervision such as homosexuality and abortion.

"When we went out to consult with a huge number of teachers and members of the public, the concern was that young people would be dealing with sensitive topics without teacher guidance.

"This would have meant students going out to do their own research on the internet and in library books.

"To recognise that concern we thought it best to make it 100% external assessment (traditional exams) - so students were taught these sensitive topics with teacher-led guidance."

Modern languages

The QCA was speaking on behalf of fellow regulators in Wales and Northern Ireland, the other main areas where GCSEs are taken.

Overall, changes come amid concerns about pupils cheating by copying from the internet or getting too much help from parents, and are effective from 2009.

The QCA rejected reports that the new exams criteria give pupils a new right to re-take each module of a GCSE. A spokesman insisted pupils were already allowed to do this.

It also refuted claims that modern language students would be able to gain a GCSE without reading or writing any of the foreign language concerned.

Pupils could, however, do a short course, equivalent to half a GCSE, by studying solely reading and writing or listening and speaking.

But to gain a full modern language GCSE they would have to do both.