U.E. move defended

Press, 24 September 1983, Page 13

U.E. move defended

Sixth Form Certificate offered employers an assessment of a pupil’s performance as an alternative to the University Entrance examination, said Mr David Ayres, regional chairman of the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association.

He was replying to comments made by the president of the Canterbury Employers’ Association, Mr Brian Shackel. Mr Shackel said employers were disappointed about moves by teachers to have University Entrance transferred to Form VII.

Employers understood the qualification as “some

measure of the potential of an employee” and much work would need to be done to ensure that a replacement such as Sixth Form Certificate had some credibility, he said.

Mr Ayres said the policy of the P.P.T.A. was not to move University Entrance to Form VII. It was to remove it from Form VI and retain other qualifications such as Sixth Form Certificate, university bursaries, and Higher School Certificate. Mr Shackel wanted a document that reflected the performance of students who wanted to leave school

at the end of Form VI. The present Sixth Form Certificate provided much more information than an accredited University Entrance, with grades in each subject. “Surely this is more use to employers,” Mr Ayres said.

It was not proposed to make a Form VII year compulsory for those wanting to go to university, as Mr Shackel had suggested. Pupils wanting to go straight to university from Form VI could do so by gaining high enough marks in Sixth Form Certificate, Mr Ayres said.