Exams set by teachers reflect what is taught

Following the news of malpractice at Eton and Winchester, Ofqual has announced that it is to look into the basis on which serving teachers are permitted to take part in writing and reviewing exam papers. Any breach of trust is a serious matter, and it is right that it should be examined to see if there are lessons to be learnt.

Public exams remain one of the fairest methods of assessing attainment in ways that employers and higher education institutions can trust. However, to be useful for this purpose, they need to be firmly grounded in what goes on in schools.

Any attempt to sever the link with the teachers whose responsibility it is to impart the knowledge and skills that young people are expected to acquire is likely to undermine their ability to do so. Having exams set by those responsible for teaching them is also one of the best ways of ensuring that they reflect the syllabus they are examining. This is not a trivial requirement at a time when we are midway through a massive revision of A-levels and GCSES.

Ofqual’s investigation will no doubt focus on whether extra safeguards are needed, but there is no getting away from the reality that the system and its integrity rely on our being able to trust in the professionalism of teachers involved in examining.

That is the assumption at universities, where any suggestion that final exams should be set by people other than those responsible for teaching the course would be met with incredulity. In the school system, similarly, having teachers set and mark exams ensures that what is taught is properly aligned with what is examined – not in any sinister way, but to ensure that exams can serve their function of accurately certificating what has been learnt.

The cases of malpractice are deeply regrettable. However, there is no evidence of any systemic problem and suggestions that smaller uptake exams should be subject to extra layers of control are likely to lead to a narrowing of the curriculum. They also ignore other pressures, such as institutional preoccupation in schools with achieving high exam results, that can contribute to individuals abusing the trust placed in them.

One of the challenges is getting a sufficient number of teachers to set and mark exams. The system is therefore very reliant on the goodwill of teachers who choose to get involved in examining – often with little encouragement from their schools – in order to further their professional development and be able to do a better job teaching their pupils. Introducing a slew of further regulations is not going to make it more attractive for teachers to take on this important work.

Securing the integrity of the system is about the institutional arrangements and culture needed to support good behaviour rather than new procedures. Schools have as important a role to play in that as exam boards, and the Ofqual review should not provide a vehicle for further disengagement by schools from the exam system for whose effective functioning, just as much as exam boards, they are responsible.