Analysis: Could artificial intelligence replace GCSEs?

Elite independent schools are currently in talks with a technology company exploring a new artificial intelligence programme that could replace GCSEs. Yet while a digital alternative to the GCSE that some schools view as "increasingly dry" might sound promising, how feasible would it really be? Mike Buchanan, executive director of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, has spoken of how this could create a far more "personalised" style of learning, with computer programmes constructing a digitised profile of each pupil's skills. And arguably, the historic reason for GCSEs no longer exists, given that most students do not leave school at 16. So the idea of a bespoke digital learning platform is attractive, and according to one source in the private school sector, senior figures at Ofsted are interested. Rather than studying a raft of GCSEs, pupils would learn from an online programme alongside their usual class teaching.