Readers including Corinna Jones and Mary Gildea respond to articles about last week’s GCSE results
Your article focused on the diverging content and results in GCSEs sat by students in different parts of the UK (GCSEs should be branded separately in England, Wales and NI, expert says, 19 August). While it is important to recognise this unfairness, it pales into insignificance when considering the GCSE syllabus followed by private schools.
Many private schools have ditched GCSEs – which state schools have to follow – in preference for the easier International GCSEs. These IGCSEs allow students to do coursework – something binned in the state system nearly a decade ago – and the questions, in general, are less hard.