Amanda Spielman, head of Ofqual, said grades are a ‘thin representation’ Added they don’t show classroom standards and shouldn’t be given weight Critics accused her of being disingenuous given the regulator’s strict stance
Schools should not get ‘ too hung up’ on exam grades because there is ‘ more to life’ than test scores, according to the head of England’s qualifications regulator.
Amanda Spielman, chairman of Ofqual, said grades were a ‘rather thin representation’ of overall standards in the classroom and should not be given too much weight.
Her comments are surprising since she heads an organisation with a key role of ensuring that qualifications are ‘sufficiently valid and trusted’.
Ofqual also has a statutory duty to ‘ promote public confidence’ in GCSEs and A- levels and has been responsible for the recent clampdown on grade inflation.
Yesterday, critics accused her of being ‘ disingenuous’ and using ‘Orwellian double-think’ given the regulator’s strict stance on exam standards.
Speaking at a conference at the Pimlico Academy in London, Ms Spielman played down the value of exam grades in demonstrating that such skills had been acquired.
She said: ‘We can sometimes get too hung up on grades. A grade C, or whatever it maybe, is a rather thin representation of what we mean by a minimum level of literacy and mathematics.
She added that there was a need to find different language and ways of thinking about ‘minimum standards that don’t just zip across to the grade’.
She said: ‘Actually we need to keep hold of the idea that there is more to life than grades. Grades are just a reflection of outcomes, they are not the outcomes themselves.’
Yesterday, Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL union, said she agreed with the comments but accused Ms Spielman of being ‘disingenuous’.
She t old t he Times Educational Supplement: ‘This is Orwellian double- think. Ofqual’s whole trajectory is to be ever more precise about the reliability of the grade boundary and in order to do that they have to assess ever more narrowly.
‘ It expects employers and parents and others to understand that exams only test a narrow range of skills that are examinable and that there a whole range of other skills which are not tested that a pupil may have acquired.
‘ The problem with that approach is that is not how exam grades are used – the assumption is that if you have a grade C in English you will be functionally literate in a whole range of areas.
‘It is a fundamentally dishonest position that ignores the reality of the way exam grades are regarded by society.’
In 2012, Glenys Stacey, the chief executive of Ofqual, said that after more than a decade of ‘persistent grade inflation’ in exams, the value of A-levels and GCSEs have been undermined.
She said wholesale changes were needed to the structure of exams and the culture within exam boards, to restore public confidence.
Since then, many qualifications have been the subject of radical reforms to make them tougher. London