ABSTRACT
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) was first examined in 1988. During the previous few years, there were an increasing number of Joint Olevel/CSE examinations developed which aimed to cover the whole ability-range. Ordinary level (O level) was introduced in the early 1960s and was the only leaving examination at 16+. However, it was geared only towards the higher-ability school pupil: until the raising of the school leaving age in the early 1970s it was felt that there was no need for an external examination for children who left school at 15. After ROSLA (the raising of the school leaving age) there was an increasing need for some kind of leaving examination for the lower 70 per cent of children for whom the Olevel examination was not considered suitable. Therefore, in 1965, the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) was introduced. From then, until the mid-1980s, the two examinations ran side by side. CSE never gained the educational kudos enjoyed by the O-level examination. It was possible to double-enter, but teachers always had the problem of which was the best examination for a particular candidate; although a grade 1 at CSE was considered the equivalent of a pass at Ordinary level, there was always the suggestion that one was an easier route than the other. For this reason Joint O-level/CSE examinations were introduced by some examination boards. There was also the fact that schools had a choice of which of the examination boards, all of which with the exception of the Associated Examining Board (AEB) were controlled by the universities, they could choose to enter. The CSE examinations were run by regional examination boards, which meant that schools had no choice for their CSE candidates.
