Parents slam ‘shambles’ of new system to grade pupils
PARENTS have hit out at what they have described as a “shocking” system that means that some children taking GCSE assessments already know the questions from their peers.
Traditional GCSE and A-level exams have been cancelled for a second year but pupils across Wales are having to sit assessments in their classrooms.
A number of schools and colleges have been running tests in classrooms using past years’ WJEC exam papers.
The assessments can’t be held in halls because of coronavirus restrictions, so pupils are sitting the same assessments at different times.
It means that pupils taking the assessments first, can tell fellow pupils the questions that were asked.
Jamie Westerman, who has a son and daughter in year 11 at a Cardiff high school, described the process as “shocking”.
He said: “They have just started their GCSE assessments to determine their final grades.
“On Monday, my daughter had her English assessment and obviously didn’t know beforehand the content of the assessment.
“My son did his English assessment and it was exactly the same as my daughter’s.
“She had obviously told him and her friends the content, giving them a huge advantage.
“How can they come up with such a shocking assessment process?
“How can it be fair that if you do a subject assessment first you do it blind,
but if you do the same assessment later in the week you know all the content.
“This is our children’s future and this shambles is letting them down.”
The process of grading students arrived at by exam board the WJEC and
regulator Qualifications Wales means teachers have little choice but to test students with past papers, headteachers said.
Earlier this week, one headteacher warned that this year’s exam grading system is “flawed” and could lead to unfair grade
inflation or deflation.
Laura Doel, director of National Association of Headteachers Cymru, says that schools’ “hands are tied” by the process, and that it was “inevitable and unavoidable” that the content of assessments would be shared.
She said: “The profession will do all it can to ensure that fair grades are awarded to learners by the people that know them best, their teachers, but schools’ hands are tied by the process that was agreed by Qualifications Wales and the Welsh Government.
“The assessment process for this year was described to schools as merely providing the evidence base for the grading decisions and those assessments are based on publicly available material such as past papers, marking schemes.
“But when schools have been asked to publish assessment schedules, when they are conducted in a controlled environment, then to all intents and purposes these are going to feel like exams.
“The issue of learners sharing the content of assessments with other cohorts was inevitable and is unavoidable given the structure agreed and this concern was raised by school leaders across Wales.”
Qualifications Wales has said the WJEC will not change grades but will ask teachers to look at them again if they differ significantly from results in 2019, 2018 and 2017.
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “The assessment process in place for 2021 places trust in schools and colleges to draw together a holistic range of assessment evidence on which to determine a learner’s grade.
“There is no requirement to use a specific set of past papers, as a range of evidence, including that completed during remote learning, will be considered eligible and this will be decided by individual schools and colleges.”