The “last thing schools need” in the aftermath of the pandemic is an overhaul of exams, an education policy expert has warned amid calls for the current system to be scrapped.
The warning, from Michael Gove’s former policy adviser - and Tes columnist - Sam Freedman, comes as schools prepare for GCSE results day on Thursday, following the publication of A-level results last week.
In an Institute for Government report published today, senior fellow Mr Freedman highlights that Covid disruption has “heightened concerns about the fairness and practicality of the system” and that there have been many calls for “wholesale reform”.
But, he says: “The last thing schools need as they deal with the after-effects of the pandemic and ever tighter funding is another assessment revolution.”
Instead of total upheaval, Mr Freedman suggests that the English education system “would benefit more from a model of incremental improvement around assessment”.
Writing in Tes today, he adds: “Schools have had to deal with plenty of new challenges over the past few years.
“It’s hard to say what teachers and leaders have found toughest but the assessment rollercoaster is right up there.”
GCSEs and A levels: first exams in three years
GCSE and A-level exams took place this summer with mitigations and support in place for students after two years of exam cancellations and disruptions due to the pandemic.
As was the case for A levels last week, the proportion of students receiving top grades at GCSE is expected to drop compared with the teacher-assessed grades given out in 2020 and 2021.
Strong calls for an overhaul of the exams system have been voiced by the education group Rethinking Assessment, as well as unions, the Times Education Commission, academics, former politicians and educationalists.
Speaking on A-level results day last Thursday, Niamh Sweeney, deputy general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said there were “major long-term problems with our exam system”.
“Expecting two or three years’ worth of teaching to be completed before all assessments are taken creates a dangerous single point of success or failure which impacts on students’ wellbeing,” she said.
But Mr Freedman said that the proposals for overhauling the system “typically exaggerate the benefits while failing to acknowledge the costs”.
Referring to Conservative leadership candidate Rishi Sunak’s proposal for a more European-style baccalaureate system, Mr Freedman said the move would have “significant knock-on effects on other parts of the system”, the most substantial of which would be related to the teacher recruitment crisis.
Call for online exams
But Mr Freedman said that the ambition to move assessment online and use artificial intelligence for marking could “improve the security and reliability of exams” and should “be considered as part of a proper national assessment strategy”.
In May, polling by exam board Pearson Edexcel revealed that over half of teachers would adopt online exams now if they were available in their subject.
Some 77 per cent of teachers surveyed said they would like more technology to be used in teaching and exams, but 95 per cent said that they needed more training in this area.
