Private school IGCSE exams ‘easier’
PRIVATE school pupils who take IGCSES have a better chance of getting top marks, the exam watchdog has admitted.
Roger Taylor, the chairman of Ofqual, said it was a problem that a far higher proportion of children get As and A*s in IGCSES – the majority of which are taken by fee-paying pupils – compared to their state-educated peers who sat the reformed GCSES.
He told the education select committee that this was a “disturbing” issue within the exam system, and agreed that it reinforced the privileges of children whose families can afford to pay for private school fees.
Originally, private schools opted for IGCSES – the International General Certificate of Secondary Education – as they saw GCSES as too easy and not sufficient preparation for A- level.
However, ministers overhauled GCSES by removing most coursework and introducing a numerical grading system. Earlier this year, research published by Education Datalab showed that two thirds of pupils achieved grade A* and A in IGCSES in maths and English language, while just 18 to 20 per cent achieved the equivalent grades in reformed GCSES.
Lucy Powell, the Labour MP, said it was a “scandal” that children at private schools who gain top grades in IGCSES were looked on more favourably by universities and employers who could not tell the difference between these exams and GCSES.
Mr Taylor said the difference can – at least in part – be explained by privately educated children generally having higher levels of attainment than children at state schools. He said IGCSES were not systematically easier than the reformed GCSES, but since they were not regulated in the same way it meant there was a risk that a “particular subject in a particular year will be easier and we don’t have the mechanisms to do anything about that”.
GCSES are regulated by Ofqual, which uses a statistical method called “comparable outcomes” to ensure that roughly the same proportion of pupils will be awarded each grade as in previous years. Meanwhile, IGCSES are not regulated by Ofqual, meaning that the number of top grades handed out are not in any way restricted.
Mr Taylor agreed with Robert Halfon, the Conservative chairman of the committee, that currently there was not a “level playing field” between private and state school pupils.
He said the best solution would be for IGCSES to be renamed, and said Ofqual had examined legal routes to address this. Mr Taylor added: “This is a situation that is not really conducive to public trust in the examination system. It is a problem.”
Mr Halfon said: “Basically, what we are saying is that if you are wealthy enough to afford to go to private school, not only that, you’re going to get an easier exam, which is called the same name and recognised by employers.”