by Our News Desk

TEACHING unions have rubbished a call for secondary schools to be fined if students fail to achieve a C in GCSE maths and English, branding it “arrant nonsense” yesterday.

Right-wing think tank Policy Exchange said that the money from the “resit levy” should be handed to further education (FE) colleges where many students will retake the exams.

It claimed that FE colleges have more students who retake are being left to deal with a far GCSE maths and English than schools and sixth-form colleges.

However, NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said: “The key recommendation of this report is arrant nonsense.

“To penalise schools that have ‘failed’ to support pupils to achieve grades C and above is not only senseless, it could also lead to perverse outcomes, including further inequality and unfairness in relation to school admissions.”

Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Brian Lightman branded the proposals “an own goal.”

He pointed out: “Schools are already facing real-terms cuts in their budgets and unprecedented difficulties in recruiting staff, particularly maths teachers.

“A resit levy would potentially worsen this situation, further reducing their capacity to put in place the very provision that would enable them to meet the challenge of enabling more pupils to achieve these grades in maths and English GCSEs.”

National Union of Teachers general secretary Christine Blower said the idea was “simply the wrong way to deal with this question” and “absolute nonsense.”