GCSEs are being replaced with the English Baccalaureate Certificate

A Kent education expert has described the scrapping of GCSEs as "an enormous step backwards".

Education secretary Michael Gove confirmed yesterday the new EBacc system - English Baccalaureate Certificate - will come into force from 2015.

The assessments are expected to be more like the old O-levels and the government hopes the reforms will raise standards.

They will include more emphasis on end-of-year assessments rather than modular tests.

But independent education advisor Peter Read, based in Gravesend and pictured left, said we should move away from an exam culture.

He said: "In this country, we’ve developed an exam culture rather than a learning culture and I believe, as a consequence, children are spending far too much of their school time focusing on exams.

"While GCSEs do have faults, one of the good things about them is they encourage children of all abilities to achieve success and I think that’s important rather than moving to a culture where we fail.

"Continuous assessment is far more related to real life than sitting down at the end of a hot June afternoon trying to remember everything you can about geography, for example."

The plans announced by Mr Gove will be the biggest change to the secondary school examination system since the introduction of GCSEs in 1986.

He said the new qualification would be more rigorous than GCSEs and concentrate on traditional academic subjects.

Under the proposals, the vast majority of pupils will be expected to work towards an EBacc - which will be given to those who obtain top grade passes in English, maths, the sciences, foreign languages and the humanities - history or geography.

From the autumn of 2015, pupils will be taught for the new EBacc in English, maths and science.

The new exam will be sat for the first time in these subjects in the summer of 2017. There will be no coursework in English and maths, but some coursework in science to take account of the importance of laboratory work.

From 2016, pupils will be taught for the new EBacc in history, geography and languages. Pupils will sit the exams in the summer of 2018. There will be no coursework for history. Field trips will still count in geography and there will be flexibility on oral exams for languages.

However, shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg claimed the changes could create a return to a two-tier system which "left thousands of children on the scrap heap at the age of 16".

Kent County Council education chief Cllr Mike Whiting said: "I welcome this move by Michael Gove and his commitment to strengthen the qualifications available to children.

"Some schools in Kent already work with baccalaureate qualifications. We need to make sure that children have the strongest qualifications and the best chance to compete nationally and internationally."