The new plan means that every student will be, for the first time ever, required to study some form of English and Maths until the age of 18.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced new plans to the current education system at the start of October.
This comes after Sheffield City Council confirms that “44.9% of school pupils in Sheffield entered higher education by the age of 19 years old.”
The aim of these plans is to reduce the number of students leaving school without achieving the minimum standard in literacy and numeracy.
However there are concerns locally that the new strategy could place students under more pressure and increase stress levels.
Matthew Swann, 40, an English teacher at a secondary school under the Delta Trust (Yorkshire), said “I think for some students, this presents a real struggle” when asked about whether he thought it was fair to make pupils study maths and English until 18.
“Whilst I see the value in qualifications, weaker students will find this very difficult and demoralising. Instead, a solution could be to allow these pupils to study ‘real world’ applications of the subjects and not just content covered by an exam.”
There will also be an initial £600 million funding boost for schools and colleges to support teacher recruitment, and to partner the higher demand for students to pass both maths and English at GCSE.
Sunak had previously shown his desire for students to study maths and English through to age 18, describing it as his “new mission”.
Swann also said: “I see all pupils struggling with exam stress and not just in the core subjects. There is increasing pressure put on young people to achieve well for university and college places and I think that this can impact mental health depending on how well students deal with that pressure.”
The new Advanced British Standard will bring together the best of A levels and T levels into a new single qualification.
Students will take a larger number of subjects at both ‘major’ and ‘minor’ level, with most A level students currently studying three subjects.
More information can be found here.