England’s three largest exam boards have said they plan to increase fees for schools in 2022 but are keeping them to the “bare minimum” following criticism of fee hikes in 2021 when public exams were cancelled.
AQA, OCR and Pearson Edexcel have said their fee increases for next year will be below the level of inflation.
AQA said it had kept its fee increases to 2 per cent, describing this as the “bare minimum”.
Tracey Newman, the board’s customer and sales director, said: “As an independent charity, we don’t charge more than we need to for our qualifications and services.
“We understand the financial pressures the pandemic has created for schools and colleges and we want to support them as much as possible, so we’ve kept our fee increases for summer 2022 to the bare minimum. The 2 per cent increase is our smallest in ten years and less than the rate of inflation.”
A spokesperson for OCR said that their increase in exam fees for 2021-22 had been set at 3 per cent, below the current inflation rate of 4 per cent and rising.
“We know that schools and colleges that choose OCR qualifications value the high-quality resources and support they receive from us, alongside the final assessments, all backed by our world-class assessment research capacity,” OCR said.
“We have had very positive feedback for the service we’ve provided to support teachers, exams officers and students during the pandemic, including our training events, our investment in online resources and the access we provide to a dedicated team of subject advisers.
“We know that schools and colleges face challenging times and we gave a significant rebate of 42 per cent on last year’s fees.”
Pearson Edexcel confirmed its fees would rise by 3.7 per cent for 2021-22.
A spokesperson for the board said: “We recognise that school budgets are stretched and we will always aim to keep fee increases to a minimum while providing as much value for money for our qualification fees.”
“Included within our fees is two full years of support for teachers. This includes access to scripts at no extra charge, as well as data for school staff to help inform more personalised teaching and learning at both individual school and [multi-academy trust] level.
“We also continue to invest in additional qualification support and further improvements to our qualifications to support schools through the specific challenges of the 2021-22 academic year, as well as beyond.”
Rebate for 2021 fees
Earlier this year heads called for a 75 per cent rebate on fees for 2021 prior to GCSE and A-level results days, with Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, arguing that schools “have had to do all the marking, grading and quality assurance that would normally be carried out by exam boards - so it seems pretty reasonable that they should receive a rebate that is commensurate with this massive task”.
Mr Barton added that it was “unacceptable” for AQA to offer schools 26 per cent of their entry fees as a rebate despite the cancellation of public exams.
The board also faced criticism for raising its exam fees for 2021 at a time when full public exams did not go ahead.
Commenting on the increases for next year, Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the ASCL, said it would be preferable not to see any increase following two years where schools and colleges have “shouldered the majority of the work” in assessing student grades.
She added: “Nevertheless, we recognise the reality that the exam boards have to absorb rising costs, and we appreciate their efforts to keep fee increases to a minimum.
“The trouble remains that exam fees are a significant cost to schools on budgets which are severely constrained. This again points to the need for an improved funding settlement from the government which, despite some progress in recent years, still does not go far enough.”
