Private schools accused of ‘gaming the system’ over extra exam time for pupils

INDEPENDENT schools have been accused of “gaming the system” after new analysis revealed that one in five students was given extra time to complete their GCSE and A-level exams last year.

Across the country, nearly 30,000 fee-paying pupils were given a special measures consideration, significantly higher than the one in eight pupils who received additional time at state schools.

The analysis, carried out by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, has rung alarm bells with teachers in the state sector, and heads have claimed that the figures raise “serious questions” over the system.

Awarded to students deemed to have special requirements or needs, including disabilities such as dyslexia, extratime agreements typically allow entrants an additional half an hour to complete each exam they take.

While a fifth of private-schooled pupils received extra time last year, only 200,000, or 12 percent, of their stateeducated peers received the same ex- tension. Commenting on the disparity, former shadow education minister Lucy Powell claimed that independent schools were unfairly benefiting from a “double advantage”, adding that pupils “shouldn’t get an exam advantage because you pay for it”.

She said: “These figures don’t make any sense, it’s a double advantage. Clearly the evidence shows that there has been a trend developing for many years where the independent sector is being much more effective at getting special access arrangements.

“The discrepancy is alarming. I would think that the proportion getting extra time would be more in line with the percentage of students registered with special needs, which is 14 per cent. I don’t understand why Ofqual [the examination regulator for England] or the Department for Education have not looked at the figures and asked these questions before.”

Geoff Barton, headteacher of King Edward VI comprehensive school in Bury St Edmunds, blamed a system of results-driven league tables for creating a “high stakes” game in which schools look to push students to apply for extra time.

Ofqual said the figures could be partially explained by the “readiness” of independent schools to identify students in need of extra time.

But Ms Powell said: “Surely Ofqual’s first job is to ensure a standardised playing field.”