Will the cancellation of the summer 2020 GCSEs make any substantial difference to where the nation’s 16-year-olds find themselves 6 months later?
GCSEs made sense in a time when age 16 signalled the end of formal education for a huge proportion of the school population. In the modern world, it’s just another point at which young people pick a particular route, in the same way they do when they choose options at the end of Year 9.
What would we lose if GCSEs just didn’t happen?