The sixth form programme is only useful if you intend to go to university abroad

Dear Editor,

I wish to refer to the letter titled ‘Minister should rethink decision on sixth-form Mathematics entry requirement’ (SN, 29.9.07). I was hoping that the letter writer would have commented on his/her motivations for wanting (he/she seemed very zealous in the cause) to do the sixth form programme.

The sixth form programme (the GCE ‘A’ level) is only necessary if you intend to go onto a college or university in the UK or in other parts of Europe. Most students who complete the sixth form (both GCE and CAPE) and who go on to the University of Guyana are awarded exemptions from certain first-year programmes which they might have concentrated on while in sixth form. I am not sure that two years of engagement in a rigorous academic programme, like the sixth form, is really worth it just for one or two exemptions when you move onto the university level. With this in mind, it is not so unreasonable to tell the letter writer that those two years would be better spent completing two years of an undergraduate degree programme at a university; hence, my recommendation to the letter writer in my previous letter on the subject.

Finally and now supposing this point to be settled, I want to let the writer know that I speak from the point of view of my own personal experience as a former QC sixth form student and I’m led on by my reflections of that time.

Yours faithfully,

Clinton Urling