• Harriet Swain
  
• The Guardian, Monday 24 September 2012 18.45 BST
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[size=1.166em]Does altering the test at the end change the learning process? Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

[size=1.166em]Announcing plans to replace GCSEs with new English baccalaureate certificates, the education secretary, Michael Gove, said it was time to restore rigour to our exams.

[size=1.166em]Chris Husbands, director of the Institute of Education

"I'm not sure there is any evidence that exams are an improvement device on their own.【本人不确定又证据支持这一观点。】[size=1.166em] What improves education is improving teaching and learning. Where exams play a part is the extent to which they provide structures that encourage improved teaching and learning.

"It's really important that we have rigour in our assessment. It's also really important that we are clear about what rigour means【具有严谨的评估以及清除严谨意味着什么却是很重要。也就是要搞清楚基本的概念具体意味着什么很重要】. And rigour means assessing children and young people on the basis of the knowledge, skills and understanding that are going to prepare them for adult life."

[size=1.166em]Michael Li, year 12 student at Manchester Grammar school

[size=1.166em]"If you tinker with exams you are not addressing the problem at the heart of education, which is engaging students and making them feel a sense of ownership in what they are learning. You can change the test at the end all you want, but it isn't going to change the learning process."

[size=1.166em]David Abulafia, professor of Mediterranean history, University of Cambridge

[size=1.166em]"Education is about excelling and bringing out the best in people, and that sometimes means going up against challenges【教育是关于发觉每个人身上的优点或最好的方面，而这就意味着有时，必须得迎难而上。】.[size=1.166em] Being made to sit for several hours concentrating hard and bringing out what you know – and the process of revising beforehand – is very valuable."

[size=1.166em]Laura McInerney, a teacher in east London for six years, now doing a PhD in education policy analysis

"Would a more rigorous driving test improve drivers? 【更加严格的驾驶考核能够提高司机的技术么？】[size=1.166em]It might, if only because making something more rigorous means the average person will need to learn more. But if you are a very bad driver and someone makes the driving test harder it doesn't make you a better driver【但是如果是一个技术拙劣的司机，那么严格的测验并不能使你成为一个优秀的驾驶员】[size=1.166em]. So, will some people end up knowing more stuff? Yes. Does it mean all people will know more? No."

[size=1.166em]Andrew Old, secondary school teacher and blogger

"It is a necessary but not sufficient condition for improving the system. 【对于提高教育体制效率是必须的但不仅仅如此】[size=1.166em]Grade inflation, dumbed-down exams and coursework have enabled many people to build a career, particularly in senior management, by playing the game, without doing anything of genuine educational value.

[size=1.166em]Interviews by Harriet Swain