Investigation into GCSE ‘double entries’
Exam boards have launched a GCSE “double entry” investigation amid claims that schools are breaking the rules to boost their positions in league tables. Hundreds of students were entered in maths GCSE exams with more than one exam board in 2016, official figures suggest.
EXAM boards have launched a GCSE “double entry” investigation amid claims that schools are breaking the rules to boost their positions in league tables.
Hundreds of students were entered in maths GCSE exams with more than one exam board in 2016, the Department for Education (DFE) and Ofqual, the exam regulator, found.
Double entries are banned, and there is concern that schools are attempting to increase their league table standing by giving pupils two attempts at maths and submitting the best mark.
More than 50 schools “double entered” pupils for maths GCSE in summer 2016, according to data obtained under Freedom of Information laws by the Times Education Supplement (TES)
Separate data, obtained from Ofqual by Mel Muldowney, a maths teacher, revealed that 172 centres entered students twice for the maths GCSE.
“Double entry is going on,” Ms Muldowney, a teacher at Alcester Academy in Warwickshire, told TES. “I can understand why – the pressure of accountability and desire to want to get the best result for students.”
The DFE uses a system of discounting to ensure that where a pupil has taken two subjects that have an overlapping curriculum, the performance tables only give credit for one.
The rules were changed in 2013, so that only the first qualification taken in any subject was counted, but if qualifications are taken on the same day, then the best result is used.
The discounting guidance states: “Schools should not vary the published starting time for an examination if there is a clash between papers of different awarding bodies or specifications in the same subject.”
A spokesman for the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), which represents the six largest exam boards, said: “The awarding organisations will carry out an investigation into any possible GCSE double entry by centres in the summer season 2016.
“The small number of potential GCSE double entries that have come to light are being reviewed carefully and JCQ will continue to monitor this in the future.”