Pre-U: the elephant in the exam hall

In June 2010, an elephant will mince shyly into our echoing school examination halls. Called Pre-U, it is a brand new sixth-form examination, developed by Cambridge International Examinations. Designed specifically to prepare real students for real work in real universities, the Pre-U trial syllabuses, being well above current A-level standard, are far beyond the capacity of most pupils reared on the pap of GCSEs.

Pre-U will without doubt be 'divisive', ie it will identify excellence. And despite the difficulties it will pose for schools that do not have the staff to divide sixth-form classes into A-level and Pre-U sets (problems for minority subjects, eg Latin and German), real universities will fall on it like starving dogs. The result may well be the implosion of the current examination system: and about time too.

'Education' is a word that now appears in no ministerial title. Schools come under the

'Department of Children, Schools and Families', and if you look at its website, you will find 'Health and Safety' is its top priority. Its aim is to get everyone through the system, at whatever cost.

That is why anyone whose job does not depend on it will tell you that current GCSEs and A-levels serve no one but the mediocre: they do not challenge the strong, nor supply the needs of the weak. The government response is a plan to replace many A-levels with 'work-based diplomas' in the first instance, before phasing A-levels out altogether.

So the choice will be: Department of Kidz 'n' Stuff diploma, or Cambridge Pre-U. One idly wonders which schools will have the staff and resources to offer Pre-U, and which pupils, therefore, will dominate entry into real universities even more, and how Kidz 'n' Stuff will react. I expect they'll condemn Pre-U on health and safety grounds.