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From 2008, parents have greater choice in post-16 education: A-level, International Baccalaureate, Cambridge Pre-U and the government’s latest initiative: the Diploma. With schools offering one, two, three or possibly all four options, parents will need to gather as much information as possible before choosing.

The Advanced Diploma will be available for students aged 16+ and will be worth more than three A-levels. The Diploma is designed to end the divide between practical and academic learning, and the government hopes the Diploma will make A-levels redundant. There are already plans for 14 Diploma qualifications introduced over the next three years. The first five Diplomas – in Construction and the Built Environment, Creative and Media, Engineering, Information Technology and Society, Health and Development – are already being taught, and Diplomas will follow in Business, Administration and Finance, Hair and Beauty, Hospitality, Environmental and Land Based Studies, Manufacturing and Product Design, Public Services, Retail, Sport and Leisure, and Travel and Tourism. Additional Diplomas will focus on Science, Languages and Humanities as broad subjects. They will guarantee a core of functional skills in English, Maths and ICT, in-depth knowledge of their subject area and practical skills.

By ensuring that the new Advanced Diploma is broadly competitive with A-levels, the government has placed the Diploma firmly within the spectrum of routes for university entry. However, only 12,000 youngsters have opted to study the five Diplomas launched in schools last September. That compares with an original target of 50,000, which was reduced to just 20,000 before term began so that schools could concentrate on ‘quality not quantity’ of delivery. The numbers of students opting for them post-16 are thought to amount to under 2,000. Cambridge University has announced that it will accept applications from students with a new Advanced Diploma in engineering, and applications will be accepted next year from students applying to start undergraduate engineering courses in 2010. It should be noted that most universities are still highly sceptical of this new qualification.

A-levels were first introduced in 1951 and have undergone many significant changes, the most recent nine years ago when the government introduced Curriculum 2000, which split the A-level into two parts: the AS (Advanced Subsidiary) and A2 examinations.

The new A-level will still be a two-year course, with the lower 6 assessing AS modules in January and June and likewise for the upper 6 assessing A2 modules. In the future the government will also introduce the A* grade to reward achievement in the more challenging questions in A-level exams. In the UK, A-level results have improved for over 25 years in a row, with a 2008 pass rate (A–E) of 97.2% and 25.9% of A-level final results graded A. The UCAS tariff, an attempt to correlate all examination scores, rates a score of 45 IB points as six and a half grade-A Alevels (A2s) and 36 IB points as four and a half grade-A A-levels.

A-levels now are competing in a tough market with many challengers, but it remains the most popular exam for students planning to attend university, with about 85 times more students in Britain studying it than the International Baccalaureate (IB). It is the most easily recognised post-16 qualification among parents and employers. The reason it is in decline is because almost everyone passes and it does not differentiate at the top end – the most important grades required for Oxbridge entry. The fact that modules can be retaken has been cited as a reason for dumbing down.

This revolution in Britain’s education system has started a counter-revolution in independent schools, many of which now look set to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) in place of A-levels. At Bedford School we have offered the IB for the past five years, partly because we believe that this course offers a better chance to study a broad range of subjects in depth, and partly because we are concerned about grade inflation at A-level. One important piece of research from Durham University claimed that a student who took the A-level exam 20 years ago would have got a result two grades higher this year. The academics also felt that the IB was a better qualification than the A-level on eight out of nine measures, including encouraging independent inquiry and creativity. AS-levels were a good idea, designed to attract more pupils nationwide into sixth forms and to bridge the gap between GCSE and A-level studies. Most teachers agree that, while recent reforms will reduce the number of exam sittings, the time to explore has been eroded. Moreover there is little evidence to suggest that AS-levels have indeed broadened the curriculum: according to Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) data, mathematics, chemistry, physics and biology are the most popular combination of four subjects among students.

The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) is an international nonprofit educational foundation, founded in 1968 in Geneva, Switzerland, and is independent of any national government. The IB is a viable alternative, with a broader and more rigorous examination than A-level. Breadth is achieved by the choice the students have to make. They take six subjects in total: three at higher level and three at standard level.

For the IB Diploma, students must study English (Group 1), a foreign language (Group 2), a humanities subject (Group 3), a science (Group 4), mathematics (Group 5) and another subject, either from Group 6 (art, music, theatre studies) or one from another group. This allows pupils to choose two foreign languages, or two humanities, or two sciences. Each subject is worth seven points, giving a score of 42. Pupils are also expected to produce an extended essay and to follow a course on the theory of knowledge, which together are worth three points. Finally, they must participate actively (150 hours) in a community service or creativity programme, even though no points are awarded for this part of the curriculum. The total points available are 45.

There has been a recent dramatic increase in the number of schools offering the IB, with the number of private schools doubling in the past year alone. However, this still accounts for only 59 of the 141 accredited schools, and the enthusiasm for growth in the maintained sector has dwindled recently since the appointment of Gordon Brown.

One comparative weakness of the IB is its ability to develop ‘in-depth subject expertise’. Critics of the IB have highlighted this point, noting that history A-level, for example, offers students the opportunity to explore the subject in far greater detail, while the IB is limited to a shorter study of a handful of twentieth-century and a few nineteenth-century topics.

Our Sixth Form at Bedford offers a wide range of choices within the IB programme, leading to final examinations at the end of Year 13 and the award of the IB Diploma. We believe that the International Baccalaureate Organisation recognises that we live in a changing environment and is constantly striving to produce a curriculum that meets the demands of that world. In the 30 years since its founding, the IB Diploma has become a symbol of academic integrity and intellectual promise. It has genuine breadth and coherence, and it also develops initiative and resourcefulness. The IB is a very effective and highly successful preparation for university and the world of employment.

The fourth choice open to parents is a brand new option called the Cambridge Pre- U Diploma. The structure of each Pre-U syllabus is linear, which differentiates it from the UK AS- and A-levels, which are modular (modular courses are assessed by module tests throughout the course) but is a similar method of assessment to the IB diploma. In September 2008, 50 schools signed up for the qualification. The Pre-U is unashamedly academic and none of the 26 subjects available is vocational. It is designed in part to help universities select between bright pupils, and graded on a pass/merit/distinction basis, with the highest mark designed to be above an Alevel A*.

The students will study three Pre-U Principal subjects. They can choose subjects freely from across the curriculum. For the Diploma, students must also complete an Independent Research Report and a Global Perspectives portfolio. To have access to the full number of points available within the Diploma, the student must also record achievement in a Short Course subject.

The Independent Research Report will be a Diploma requirement for candidates to submit a report based on work done beyond individual subject syllabuses, on a topic chosen by the candidate. In many ways this is similar to the IB Extended Essay.

The Global Perspectives course, in the form of a series of seminars, encourages students to explore those challenges that will face them as young people in the modern world – wherever they may live and work. The assessment will also include the development of detailed research proposals, one of which may form the basis of the Independent Research Report.

A student may, of course, take more than three Principal Subjects. The Diploma transcript, as a complete record of achievement, will include details of performance over and above the ‘cap’ required for the award of the Diploma. The Cambridge Pre-U Diploma, like the IB, will have a maximum point score of 45, made up from Principal Subjects (3 x 10 points); a Short Course (5 points), Global Perspectives Portfolio (5 points) and Independent Research Report (5 points). Some students may even choose to do another Principal Subject. However, the maximum points available will be 45.

What the Pre-U must guard against is perpetuating a two-tier system, with highly selective schools taking it and comprehensives favouring A-levels and Diplomas. The absence of resits will not enable teachers to track pupil progress in the normal way available to A-level teachers. As with any new qualification, the Pre-U’s currency with universities is not fully established, while it has yet to be allocated UCAS points. Perhaps the single biggest concern about the Pre-U is the quality of the examiners and where this pool of expertise will be drawn from. If it is from the very teachers of the highly selective schools that have opted for the Pre-U or from teachers that were involved in writing the syllabus then this would lead to a conflict of interest. The consequences of all this are that we shall have a more fragmented system than before, and those about to embark on sixth-form careers will require even more advice than ever before.