ESSA Council Members speak at the Westminster Education Forums’ seminar- ‘GCSE’s and the English Baccalaureate’

On the 30^th June, ESSA Council Members; Shagufta Ghumra and Nabina Ibrahim spoke at the Westminster Education Forums’ event on the new English Baccalaureate. Here, Shagufta writes about her experience.

ESSA was invited to participate in a Westminister Educational Forum upon the subject of the e-bac (the English baccalaureate). On hearing this, I, Shagufta Ghumra put myself forward as it was very relevant to the decisions I am going through being in year 9 and choosing my options. Nabina Ibrahim also spoke at the event with me.

On the day, we were part of the second panel of speakers; who were Richard Green, Sue Kirkam, Professor Sir John Holman and Paul Marshall. We had prepared a short speech earlier about our choices of subjects to continue in year 10 and our GCSE’s. We included our thoughts about the English baccalaureate and how much of an impact it has made on us so far. After we had read out our speeches the panel were confronted with questions to answer. In these questions, each speaker had to back up their side of the argument; if the e-bac is a good idea or not. Many education ministers and decision makers had mixed views upon the E-bac. One reason for this is the E-bac only acts as a performance measure towards schools and does not have a great impact on an individual itself.

ESSA speaking and being represented at this event was very important as choosing options in secondary schools is very important for school students. By attending this event, we can now give the ESSA council a more detailed insight upon the E-bac. This experience has also personally helped me a great deal as I am now more confident in the choices of subjects I have made for the coming year in school.