Gavin Williamson has told MPs he is “expecting” exam boards to offer rebates to schools that have undertaken teacher-assessed grades this year.
Appearing at the Commons Education Select Committee, the education secretary was asked by Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis about the amount of money schools were being charged by exam boards this year.
Mr Gullis said: “One of the concerns raised to me by schools is having to pay that…to exam boards, but exam boards obviously aren’t having to hire the examiners or all the staff who would normally come with it.
“Do you think it’s fair that schools and colleges are having to spend what is tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds…when all that money could instead be going on vital catch-up and enrichment activity?”
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Mr Williamson replied: “As you’ll be aware, exam boards are responsible for setting the fees…I would be expecting exam boards to be delivering a rebate to schools at the end of this process as they did last year.”
Heads want bigger exam rebate in 2021
Nearly two-thirds of headteachers called for a 75 per cent rebate on exam fees this year following the cancellation of public exams, according to a survey earlier this month.
Last year, rebates of around 25 per cent were given to schools following the cancellation of exams.
But heads say that this year, schools have had to carry out an entire assessment process from scratch, requiring more work than last year, when teachers assessed students on the basis of work that had already been completed up to the point of the March lockdown.
Responding earlier this year to calls for a bigger rebate in 2021, exam board AQA said it was “important to remember that entry fees aren’t just for exam papers and marking”.
It added the board’s other work included collecting grades and “supporting schools through the process” as well as carrying out “a complex and completely new” quality assurance that included developing and delivering training for all staff and examiners.
‘Recycled’ GCSE and A-level materials
Mr Gullis also asked Mr Williamson today about concerns over the quality of materials provided by exam boards to help teachers with grading.
Mr Gullis said: “And can I also ask: do you share the concerns that some of the materials, the examples put out to be used as part of the assessment that was going towards the evidence for students’ grades, were, in fact, just recycled past questions rather than brand-new ones, which meant that some children, particularly those [with] sharp-elbowed middle-class parents, would have accessed these online papers, would have been able to afford to give their child a head start?”
But Mr Williamson did not appear to share the concerns. He replied: “Well, I think what was so good was that there was such a broad range of information there.
“Jonathan, if you are able to memorise 10 past years of, I don’t know, let’s say physics papers, frankly, you are worthy of an A* in my view.”
