Ofqual say Science GCSEs are not 'tough enough'

Nearly 450,000 pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland took the science GCSE, with 352,000 taking the harder additional science GCSE.

Slightly fewer entries were awarded top A and A*grades than last year in both exams, but there was an increase in those that passed, achieving a grade between A* and C.

Isabel Nisbet as chief executive of Ofqual told the Times Education Supplement, "If you asked me 'is science GCSE good enough?' I think the answer would be 'No'."

"What pupils and teachers should know is that their exams have been fairly and consistently marked, rigorously checked, and therefore if they get a C or a B or an A, this is a real achievement."

The exam board, AQA, claimed that Ofqual had asked them to lower their standards in 2008 in order to ensure a 'consistency of standards' across all the awarding bodies.

The OCR exam board have claimed that the five GCSE exam boards are working hard with the regulator to address the challenges posed by the current GCSEs:

"Even though they were originally approved by that regulator. It is taking some time because modular qualifications take longer to amend as students have already taken some units."