Watchdog to crack down on remarking of school exams

A CLAMPDOWN on GCSE and A-level remarking was launched by England’s exam regulator yesterday to prevent pupils getting ‘a second bite of the cherry’. Ofqual has ordered exam boards not to change marks to contested papers unless there is a ‘clear error’.

This will prevent a second examiner having a more generous interpretation of the mark scheme, such as in the arts and humanities which have extended answers. The shake- up comes amid a culture of schools routinely contesting crucial exam results, with a 200 per cent rise in challenges over the last five years. It is expected to result in a significant reduction in the number of grades changed in future.

Independent schools are likely to be hardest hit, as fresh Ofqual research shows that private schools contest double the amount of A-level and GCSE entries compared with state schools.

The new system comes into force this summer, which means pupils currently sitting their A-levels and GCSEs will be subjected to tougher procedures if they challenge results in August.

Exam boards will have to ensure that errors are corrected, for example if the original examiner made an ‘ unreasonable exercise of academic judgment’ or did not correctly follow the mark scheme.

Administrative errors such as marks being added together incorrectly will also be corrected. However, ‘ reasonable marks must not be changed’.

Previously, examiners taking a second look at contested scripts were able to change marks and grades when they disagreed with the original decision.

Julie Swan, Ofqual’s executive director for general qualifications, added: ‘It is not fair to allow some students to have a second bite of the cherry by giving them a higher mark on review, when the first mark was perfectly appropriate.’ In 2015, a record 90,000 A- level and GCSE grades were changed after a huge increase in number of papers sent back by schools to be remarked, according to Ofqual statistics published in December.

There were more than 572,000 challenges about GCSE and A-levels, up 27 per cent on 2014.

In total, 90,650 grades were changed – the highest number recorded. In 99 per cent of cases this was an upwards change.

In 2010, 189,950 grades were queried and 34,800 changed. Yesterday two teaching unions, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), whose members are from the state sector, and the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC), which represents elite private schools, united to condemn the changes yesterday.

They claimed the new regulations will be ‘less transparent, less rigorous and will erode confidence further that marks and grades are sufficiently accurate’.