Teachers could face exam papers ban amid public schools scandal
TEACHERS could be barred from setting exam papers under proposals being considered by Ofqual in the wake of the public schools cheating scandal.
In a clampdown on exam malpractice, teachers who are also employed by exam boards would only be allowed to write individual questions, which would then go into a “bank” and be selected at random for future tests. Alternatively, the regulator may allow teachers to continue to set exams, but stop them from teaching the courses.
A third option could be for teachers to prepare multiple exam papers but not be told which is the official version, meaning no teacher would know the exact questions.
This would stop examiners from gaining advance knowledge of the papers, and prevent them from leaking information to their pupils in order to boost grades.
The proposals were discussed yesterday during a parliamentary inquiry into the “integrity of public examinations”, overseen by the Commons education committee. The inquiry was launched earlier this summer, after The Daily Telegraph revealed that teachers at some of England’s leading independent schools had leaked exam questions to pupils.
Simon Henderson, the headmaster of Eton, told MPS yesterday that teachers at the school are involved in setting seven public exams taken by their own pupils. Mr Henderson was giving evidence to the Commons education committee’s inquiry into the integrity of the exam system. This follows allegations that students at some of the country’s best-known educational establishments were given prior knowledge of questions from masters associated with the exam boards. This resulted in the dismissal of a teacher at Eton and the early retirement of a master at Winchester. The exam marks were annulled.
Top independent schools are under pressure to justify their high fees with exceptional exam results, but clearly any jiggery-pokery is unacceptable. On the other hand, teachers at these schools are experts in the subjects and cannot be excluded from the exam-setting process without diluting standards. Where universities once provided the majority of setters, that role is now almost entirely in the hands of schools.
There is no evidence that this activity is widespread, but procedures need to be put in place to ensure there is no room for doubt. Mr Henderson said new safeguards had been introduced at Eton and the exam regulator Ofqual is looking at a number of options that would keep teachers involved in the exam process but ensure they were not both poacher and gamekeeper. One would allow them to teach the specification for which they were writing papers, but leave them ignorant of whether the questions or topics they had been working on would come up in the exams.
That sounds sensible. It has been done before and indeed should be again.