Education Reform Act 1988

5 Courses leading to external qualifications

(1) No course of study leading to a qualification authenticated by an outside person shall be provided for pupils of compulsory school age by or on behalf of any maintained school unless the qualification is for the time being approved by the Secretary of State or by a designated body and either—

(a) a syllabus provided by the outside person for the purposes of the course is for the time being approved by such a body; or

(b) criteria so provided for determining a syllabus for those purposes are for the time being so approved.

(2) An approval under this section may be given either generally or in relation to particular cases.

(3) In this section—

• “designated” means designated by the Secretary of State;

• “outside person”, in relation to a school, means a person other than a member of staff of the school.