Pen-and-paper exams would be discarded “at our peril”, the Ofqual interim chief regulator has warned.

Sir Ian Bauckham’s concern about introducing online exams without proper planning echoes the caution expressed by others in the exams world.

Such a move could exacerbate the disadvantage gap, Sir Ian fears, amid concern that some students lack adequate access to technology.

Sir Ian, who took up the one-year role in January after three years as Ofqual’s chair, sees his responsibility as one of “guardianship”, a word he repeats numerous times during his exclusive sit down with Tes.

“My responsibility is to be the guardian of that system, the guardian of standards, and…the guardian of consistency and fairness, and that’s my focus,” he says.

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But his plan to steer a steady ship comes at a time when there are increasingly strong calls for evolution in the form of online assessment.

All three major exam boards in England - OCR, Pearson and AQA - have announced timelines in the last year for their planned move to digital assessment, with Colin Hughes, chief executive of AQA, stating that leaders have stopped pondering the possibility of online assessment, instead asking “how, what and when” the move will come.

‘Not on my watch’

But Sir Ian tells Tes: “You can’t hack into a piece of paper on an exam desk. I think that that very tried and tested way of taking exams is something that we discard at our peril, and we certainly won’t be doing that on my watch.”

He is likely correct: the sudden acceleration towards online assessment has already seemingly met its first bump in the road.

Just last week, AQA said that it no longer anticipated its first digital GCSE exams to run from 2026, citing a need to “get this right and maintain public confidence in our exams system, as well as give schools and colleges proper notice before making changes”.

While such delays are yet to be mirrored by the other two exam boards, there will now inevitably be question marks over those planned timelines.

Sir Ian is unlikely to lose sleep over this. Asked if he thinks there is a risk that a move to online exams could exacerbate an already-existing attainment gap, he reflects: “There are lots of risks that would need to be assessed when we look at whether an online examination specification is going to be fit for purpose, and able to be accredited.

“That’s certainly one of them, but there are others as well.”

Focus on closing the disadvantage gap

It’s the disadvantage gap, though, that occupies Sir Ian’s thoughts most - and not just when it is related to how we conduct exams.

“I know that everybody who works in education is worried when children don’t achieve as well as they could,” he says, adding: “Everybody is focused on closing [the] disadvantage gap.”

This gap could be further aggravated by the teacher supply crisis, according to Sir Ian - who acknowledges he has had his “fingers in a few pies” after 30 years in education, including working on the government’s teacher recruitment and retention strategies.

Sir Ian thinks that government investment in teacher professional development - something he has been a close adviser on - has been “very helpful” in the work to narrow the attainment gap.

He argues that the reformed Early Career Framework, national professional qualifications and initial teacher training are all examples of ”equipping teachers to teach more effectively against the evidence we know narrows gaps”.

Fair exams ‘spotlight’ regional divide

Sir Ian says that, while these initiatives are “still rolling out”, they will make a difference “because the evidence tells us it will”.

A big factor in the disadvantage gap is regional gaps in attainment, but he doesn’t see Ofqual taking on an expanded role in actively tackling that regional divide, for example by adapting qualifications or directing the government, despite admitting he is “saddened” at the gap.

If students were not graded to the same standard, “you wouldn’t even know that there were any regional disparities, or any disparities between those who are disadvantaged and their peers,” Sir Ian says.

“Once we know it, we can shine a spotlight on it and do something. But without fair exams, we couldn’t do that.”

So, what are the other risks posed by the move to online assessment? “If a system isn’t broken, just be very careful of trying to fix it,” he warns, adding: “Unless you’re very careful, you might cause more problems that you solve.”

In fact, he argues that with England’s reputation as a “world-renowned examination system”, he does not want to “mess with that and introduce risk unnecessarily”.

Sir Ian is clear that the sector should not “do things for the sake of doing them”.

This reluctance to jump feet-first into a fully digital future is a stance that echoes his predecessor Dr Jo Saxton.

So, can the sector expect any big changes at Ofqual under his watch? Sir Ian says that “the main thing for [Ofqual] now is making sure that we keep the ship on an even keel”, adding that there are “no radical changes in the pipeline”.

For example, Sir Ian makes no mention of reviewing the grading system or tackling concerns over the fairness of the system.

Pandemic forced ‘impossibly difficult decisions’

Reflecting on the pandemic and subsequent cancellation of examinations in the summer of 2020 and 2021 - a period when Ofqual faced severe criticism - Sir Ian says that there were “impossibly difficult decisions during the pandemic. I don’t think there was any single right answer”.

While examinations were cancelled, students were still awarded their qualifications in those two years, first by a centre-assessed grading system in 2020 and then by teacher-assessed grades the following year, leading to grade inflation.

Sir Ian is keen to build on work done to “re-establish examinations and normal grading standards, after the disruption of the pandemic”.

Consistency, comparability and steadiness

But is there anything that Sir Ian worries could blow the ship off course? He says it is “always important to be attentive to the wider environment when you’re looking at exams”.

“When I say keeping on an even keel, what I mean is consistency in exams and grading and qualifications in a couple of different ways from one year to the next and between different exam boards,” he clarifies.

And while Sir Ian says that steadiness “may sound boring”, he adds: “Boring is good in this space, because it’s about that comparability and steadiness.”

This idea of “steadiness” could be at risk, however, with a likely change in government by the end of the year. Would Sir Ian advise against any huge upheaval of the qualifications system?

He insists his job is not to advise for or against change, but to “make sure that whatever examination system government decides on can be delivered in a way which is fair and consistent”.

Advanced British Standard

Sir Ian’s plans for a lack of upheaval during his tenure could arguably have already been scuppered with the government’s announcement of the scrapping of A levels and T levels to be replaced by a new Advanced British Standard (ABS).

Does he foresee this new qualification challenging in his plans for consistency?

“That would be one of the key things that we will be advising government on,” Sir Ian says. Ofqual would also advise on “how best to ensure that any new exams or qualifications could be awarded in a way that was consistent and therefore gained and maintained public confidence”.

Of course, there is a suspicion in the sector that such an ABS will never come to light, with the current government admitting it will take “a decade to deliver in full”.

And, as Sir Ian has reiterated many times during the interview, he is only set to hold this interim role for one year. But despite the year shaping up to be a busy one, Sir Ian says he was “pleased to accept” the position and is “glad” he did so as it is “proving a very interesting time”.

Results days are ‘amazingly rewarding’

He admits he was “very sad to step away” from the schools he had led for so long. He tells Tes he spent 20 years as a headteacher. “That was quite an emotional moment,” he says.

While Sir Ian has closed the chapter on that part of his career - at least for now - he says his fondest memory of that time is connected to his current role. He points to results day, which he describes as “an amazingly rewarding moment”.

“Teachers often stop and look at each other and say: ‘Do you remember Vanessa when she first came to us? That shy little girl who kept crying for the whole of her first term - and here she is off to study medicine,’” Sir Ian reminisces.

“How can you beat that?”

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