Head teacher warns marking errors are blighting exam system
Success will have to be earned
THE HEAD TEACHER of a leading independent school has warned that marking errors are blighting the exams system as thousands of students in Yorkshire prepare to receive their A-level results today.
Jonathan Taylor, the headmaster at Bootham School in York, suggested exam boards could not cope with the workload and that mistakes were increasingly creeping in.
He warned that this would disadvantage pupils at schools which did not have the resources to effectively challenge marking on their behalf.
Experts say they expect A-level grades to be broadly in line with last year. Results had improved for almost 30 years before 2012 when they declined and there was another dip last year.
Mr Taylor said: “This week’s results should show some consistency with past years – but we will be watching carefully for mistakes in marking. This has become a real blight on results day in recent years - Bootham has had to challenge the marks awarded to several candidates each year just because the exam boards can’t cope with the workload and errors creep – or rush – in.”
In the past two years the school has requested more than 400 remarks because of concerns over the marking. In 2012 eight A-levels, five AS levels and 21 GCSEs were regraded and many more
papers were given extra marks as a result of this.
Hundreds of thousands of students will receive their A-level grades today, allowing them to make vital decisions about their future, such as heading off to university, starting a training courses or getting a job.
Last year, just over one in four entries (26.3 per cent) scored an A* or A, down 0.3 per cent on the year before. The fall was believed to be the second biggest drop in the history of the qualification.
A* – the very top grade – also dipped last summer, with 7.6 per cent of exams scoring the mark, compared with 7.9 per cent in 2012, while the overall A*-E pass rate rose by 0.1 per cent to 98.1 per cent.
The national picture also showed that boys pulled further ahead in the highest grades in 2013, with eight per cent of boys’ entries attaining an A* compared with 7.4 per cent of girls. In 2012 the gap between the sexes was just 0.1 per cent, with male students doing better.
Girls were still slightly ahead in A*-A grades combined last year, but their results dropped half a percentage point to narrow the gulf between the genders. They also continued to do better in terms of numbers of A*-C grades.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said a “big gap” opened up between the sexes following the move to make A-levels modular in the early 2000s, but this has been getting smaller in recent years.
“I don’t know if that’s schools putting more effort into getting boys to do better to boost the school’s overall performance results,” he said.
Christopher Walsh, the head teacher of Boston Spa School, said the most important results today are not the grades achieved by students - but the number who are able to get into their university of choice. He said: “If there is a slight dip in today’s results it should be a national one and not one that disadvantaged a particular group of students. The most important thing is whether young people get into their first choice of university.”
TODAY MARKS D-Day for thousands of students across Yorkshire as they receive their A-level results. For many, there will be relief and excitement at the prospect of taking up a place at their favoured university. For others, it will be a case of disappointment and uncertainty over their future plans.
Yet those in the latter camp should not feel too despondent. There are options available to them, such as resits, and a growing recognition that academic study is not the best path for everyone. After years of attempting to bash square pegs into round holes, politicians and education chiefs are waking up to the idea that vocational subjects can offer a viable route into rewarding and often wellpaid careers.
The hope is that as the success stories of those who choose this option mount up, more young people will be encouraged to give this option genuine consideration.
Yet there is no escaping the fact that the world today is very different from that of 10 – or even five – years ago. While yesterday’s jobs figures showed the biggest drop in the number of unemployed 16 to 24-yearolds in two decades, there are no guarantees. Even those with three good A-levels and a place at a well-regarded university are likely to face stiff challenges in terms of securing a first job in their chosen field when they graduate.
It means that it has never been so important for young people to identify the career they wish to pursue at an early stage and then work towards it, even if this means taking an internship or unpaid work to gain vital experience.
The absence of familiar certainties also dictates that today’s generation are likely to need to show far greater flexibility in terms of applying their skills and knowledge to different roles. The Yorkshire Post wishes them luck today and on every step of the journey – and hopes to be reporting on their future successes in the years to come.