GCSEs harm our young people. Ministers should have the guts to abolish them – and start again | Simon Jenkins

A report out this week highlights how destructive the cult of the exam is in Britain’s schools. But it doesn’t go far enough

Just say it. Spit it out. Abolish GCSE. It has nothing to do with young people or their advancement. It has everything to do with quantifying, measuring, controlling and governing their preparation for life.

Last year, Prof Becky Francis was asked by the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, to draw up proposals for the curriculum in England’s secondary schools. In her in...