ABSTRACT
Separate but equal was deemed to be impossible in the famous legal judgement on segregated schooling in the US. Can we in the UK have separate Advanced GNVQs that are nevertheless equal to A levels? How could we know? They are not delivered in separate institutions but are they delivered in separate ways? And how could equality of esteem be estimated and then monitored over time as the qualification ‘proves’ or does not prove itself? In terms of enrolments, Advanced GNVQs have been a great success and to that extent they have shown a fitness for purpose, even if that purpose might have been created by the lack of jobs and a flight from A levels to one of the few remaining alternatives.
