School gate blog: can we have less politics in our GCSEs please?

GCSE and A-level examination answers given by students are to be published on the internet so that the public will be able to judge whether standards are worsening.

Over the past decade there has been a growing number of complaints that the gold standard of GCSEs and A levels has been compromised because the exams are getting easier.

Kathleen Tattersall, the head of Ofqual, the exams watchdog, says that she wants to put an end to the debate by publishing examples of GCSE and A-level exam scripts completed by the brightest pupils. She also wants to put on display artwork, technical designs and project work submitted for practical examinations to restore public confidence in the examination system.

Critics of the proposals say that the publication of a few highly polished exam scripts will give only a partial view into standards.

Speaking before an address to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers’ annual conference in Liverpool this week, Ms Tattersall, a former teacher who spent 20 years in charge of examination boards, said that the restoration of public confidence in exams was a key ambition for Ofqual.

“We need to bring in front of the public eye the actual work that students do so they can see for themselves what demands are made on students who get high grades,” she said. “We need to be able to demonstrate the achievements of young people. When you see some of the work that students produce, you think it’s amazing that young people are so adept at the subjects concerned.”

In addition to publishing written scripts on the internet, Ms Tattersall said that candidates’ work could be displayed at conferences and focus group events.

She said that the proposals had not yet been thought through in detail, adding that there would be data protection issues to consider. Pupils and exam boards would each have to give their permission.

Robert Coe, of Durham University, whose own research suggests that A levels have been made easier by two grades since 1988, was highly sceptical of the idea. “Nobody doubts that there will be a few students who do good work. But just seeing an exam script tells you only part of the story,” he said.

It would need to be made clear whether the work on display represented a pupil’s first attempt at a particular exam, or whether it was from a paper that had been resat several times, he said. Details of the syllabus and the textbooks and an explanation of what students needed to demonstrate to achieve each grade would also need to be explained.

Dr Coe also questioned Ms Tattersall’s claim that most exam standards had been maintained. Reports from Ofqual last week concluded that standards in English and maths exams had remained more or less consistent. However, the regulator raised “significant concerns” about science and physics examinations, suggesting that they had been dumbed down, and ordered immediate changes.

Ms Tattersall said that changes in the syllabus and in methods of testing made an accurate comparison of standards difficult. Systems in which the syllabus is broken into modules that are tested separately were not necessarily easier than systems in which exams were taken at the end of a two-year course.

“In the old days pupils could select a question to show they really understood a particular topic. But there’s no guarantee they could show consistency across the whole syllabus,” she said. “Modular systems mean there is no hiding place because far more of the syllabus is covered by exams.”

Ms Tattersall said that she felt sympathy for pupils who worked hard only to have their exam achievements undermined. “I really share parents’ and students’ concerns. We have a tendency as a nation always to belittle the achievements of the current generation and to think things are not as good as they used to be. The facts do not always bear this out.”

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