Today we’ve shared our intention to offer GCSE English language and English literature students the opportunity to take their exams on-screen with us next summer.

It’s exciting to finally be able to count down to the first fully on-screen exam for a core subject such as English, particularly as this is an ambition we’ve been working on behind the scenes for many years now.

By 2030, we want every student to be able to choose how they take their GCSEs, according to their individual needs and preferences: the students who need a larger font size for questions, for instance. Or those who need to add a colour filter to their paper - and perhaps need to change that colour during the exam. Or students who want to craft their essay using their favourite pen on paper.

We can offer all of those as options - and without any advance access requirements needed - thereby reducing the administrative burden on centres too.

Demand has grown for on-screen

Somewhat quietly, we’ve seen demand steadily increase for on-screen-supported exams in recent years. In summer 2023, we had 15,000 typed responses for GCSE English alone, as part of access arrangements or a preferred way of working.

About 90 per cent of students who took our live, high-stakes International GCSEs, which were delivered on-screen, told us they’d like to see more exams happen in this way.

Entries for on-screen have doubled year on year. The anecdotal feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and was summed up by one student, who said: “It has definitely helped me feel confident with my English exam due to how much writing is required. It makes it easier to focus.”

Across the country we’ve been running mock exams on-screen in GCSE English and other subjects for years. We are also running a programme of research here and internationally to monitor the implementation, and have found no systematic differences in how students perform in on-screen or paper versions.

All of this has given us the opportunity to work through the questions and queries that teachers have. Below, I address the three most common questions we hear from teachers and schools and colleges:

1. Will paper-based exams still be available for my students?

Yes! I want to bust the myth that technology means an either/or for the future. It doesn’t. We’re harnessing technology to open up more choice for students in how they take their exams so that they can best demonstrate their work.

For many, that will be a choice to take an exam on-screen, for some they may prefer to write it by hand. This is a choice that some are already making - to type responses in line with what the Joint Council for Qualifications permits.

2. How do we offer on-screen exams if we don’t have the infrastructure?

We’ve set an ambition that by 2030, all GCSEs will have both paper-based and on-screen formats. By doing so, we fully welcome continuing the important discussion on the investment and support required to ensure all schools and colleges can be in a position to offer on-screen options.

This is a whole sector challenge and we’ve pledged to play our part to help tackle the digital divide. We need more discussion about the investment needed to ensure all schools and colleges can offer on-screen exams.

Reassuringly, we’re already seeing large cohorts of students (100+) taking our on-screen GCSE in computer science each year, indicating that more and more schools can offer on-screen assessments.

And in terms of the students we’re seeing opting to type their exam responses, there is a representative mix in schools across the country.

3. When can we start offering on-screen options?

Subject to Ofqual approval, the first students will be able to take their exams on-screen in the summer of 2025.

We’ll share more information in the coming weeks and months.

The next steps

I hope you’re as excited as I am by this milestone announcement for on-screen assessment today and the conversation it opens up for the future of assessment. We’ll be sharing even more information over the coming weeks.

Schools and colleges that have questions about Pearson Edexcel on-screen GCSEs can find more information on our website or can get in touch: teachingenglish@pearson.com

Hayley White is a vice-president of Pearson