Mail readers have their say on future of GCSEs as educational leaders call for change

GCSEs should be reformed or scrapped, according to a majority of school and college leaders polled by a teachers' union.

We asked in our Facebook poll: “Do you think children are too young at 16 to be assessed?”

More than 200 readers took part in the online vote and 60% said children are not too young to be assessed at 16.

Here is what readers had to say:

Lee Smith said: “I'd like to see it changed to a more on going assessment and not 100 exams at the end of Year 11. And the marking should be more focused on application not just memorising content.”

Dany Maiden said: “A lot of young people work so hard for their GCSEs and it is a great achievement when they get their results. It helps them learn commitment and self worth. Even if they don't get the results they want it is a sense of pride to get through them and other options are always available as long as they want to work.”

Michael Jones said: “No but they need to understand getting poor results does not define the rest of their lives. It’s just part of the process. It’s like most studying and courses you only really start to learn when your working.”