Setting school exams

SIR – It is clearly unacceptable for teachers who are also examiners to leak prior knowledge of the content of upcoming papers (report, August 29). However, there are advantages in having exams set by teachers who are also delivering the specification in the classroom.

When I started teaching A-level in 1980, the Oxford and Cambridge examination board employed a large number of university academics to set its papers. The trouble was that many of these academics didn’t understand what an 18-year-old could do, or how teachers would deliver the syllabus. There was a mismatch between what appeared on the paper and what had been covered in the classroom.

In the Nineties I was employed to moderate the papers of a major exam board. I was also preparing students for the papers I was moderating. Pupils who sat those exams had the advantage of knowing that their papers had been approved by someone who knew what was reasonable to expect from them. The advantage for my own students was not that I would tell them the questions in advance (I did not), but rather that my interpretation of the specification would be the one that decided what would appear on the paper.

Going forwards another decade, examinations became businesses. The company that set the exam became the company that published the textbooks. Both the publisher (which is also the examination board) and the subject officer (who has the final say about what appears on the papers) had financial incentives to persuade schools to opt for their board, and to buy their books.

As the new A-levels are introduced, there is still the link between the examination board and some publishers. Now the incentive is for chief examiners to make sure that what appears in the exams matches the content of the textbooks for which they are also employed as consultants.

Many would argue that, as a country, competition within a free-market economy has served us well. But in public examinations, with teachers competing to help their pupils achieve the best possible grades, and examination boards and publishers competing for profits, A-levels might be an example of an area where a different approach would be more suitable.

Garry Wiseman

Head of Maths, Radley College Abingdon, Oxfordshire