Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of her Department’s reform of AS and A-level qualifications on the number of hours of study students are undertaking in post-16 education.

Nick Gibb

The number of guided learning hours for AS and A levels have not changed as a result of our reforms. However, with the move to linear qualifications, there will no longer be the routine and automatic external assessment of students at the end of year 12 which places unnecessary burdens on students’ and teachers’ time.

Study programmes are funded per student rather than per qualification. Funding rates are based on an average of 600 hours per year of planned activities per student.