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forms with GCE A levels or repeat O levels as the only curriculum option. It
established, together with the Standing Committee for University Entrance (SCUE), a
working party to draw up an alternative scheme. The outcome was a proposal for a
qualifying year (Q) studying five subjects, followed by a further (F) year focusing on
the student’s chosen special subjects. At the time, this proposal was generally
considered far too radical. Its basic structure was to re-emerge in the Curriculum 2000
reforms thirty years later. A similar plan in 1973 comprised courses at normal (N) and
further (F) levels which again failed to win support.
In 1972 the Schools Council produced its most ambitious scheme in this area. The
Certificate of Extended Education (CEE) was to provide a qualification at the end of
one year’s sixth-form study based on core subjects augmented with content relevant to
the world of work. It seemed a plausible way forward for institutions attempting to
cope with the growing numbers and widening ability range of students staying on in
education after 16. Yet despite its answering an obvious need, it was not perceived as
the right solution to the growing problems post-16 education faced as a result of social
and economic changes.
Firstly, following the raising of the school leaving age to 17 in 1972, schools were
primarily concerned with how to cope with a new population for many of whom there
was little prospect of examination success. Then the 1973 oil crisis brought about an
economic downturn which closed doors to potential employment for these same
young people, leaving them with no option but to stay on at school for another year.
The CEE seemed a utopian answer to a very down-to-earth problem; it was flawed in
that it assumed a higher level of attainment than its potential clientele had achieved.