Education spokesman Simon Thomas AM added that Plaid opposed the marketisation of education with competing qualification providers.

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Education Secretary Michael Gove said that the problem was not "elitism or snobbery" but a lack of honesty in higher education about "the subject and qualification choices which prepare students best for university study".

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Margaret Smith, the Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman, said that changes in the qualification system in Scottish secondary schools would not address the problem.

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Another embarrassing finding was that less than a fifth of young people who choose the full-time education and training option are leaving it with the qualification they aimed for.

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Further education would also be attractive if it led to a useful qualification.

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The only apparent benefit in cashing in is to enable the student to show the AS level qualification on the UCAS form in their application to Higher Education.

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More than a third of physics teachers (around 2, 000 teachers), half of those teaching Spanish (around 3, 400), over half of information and communications technology (ICT) teachers (around 9, 200) and more than two in five religious education teachers (around 6, 500) do not hold a relevant qualification higher than an A-level.

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The "short course" GCSE, which can be taken in subjects including religious education, physical education and art, covers fewer topics than an ordinary GCSE and is valued at half the full qualification.

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If the students wish to pursue a certificate to confirm that they have achieved the official level of primary or basic education (three years of secondary school), they are able to sit an exam to obtain this qualification whilst attending the programme.

UNESCO: Country Profile: Uruguay