Exams watchdog

ePolitix.com Stakeholders comment on Ed Ball's speech at the Labour Party conference, which detailed plans to disband the school exams authority and replace it with an independent body.

The schools secretary told the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth on Wednesday that the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority will be replaced by a new body tasked with maintaining standards.

Party response: Labour

Ed Balls said: "The reason for this is to put behind us, I hope once and for all, the sterile dumbing-down debate that we have every summer where young people are told when they get their GCSE results or their A-Level results that they aren't worth what they used to be."

 

Party responses: Conservatives

Michael Gove, shadow secretary of state for  schools, said: "It is quite right to break up the QCA and separate the role of regulator from its other functions.

"I am glad that Ed Balls has adopted a policy we have been advocating for many years.

"The key test for him, however, is to ensure that exam standards are robust by global standards and that we reverse the trend that has seen us falling behind our international competitors."

 

Party response: Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrat schools spokesman David Laws said: "This change is both overdue and underwhelming.

"For years, the education of our children has been undermined by political meddling in the curriculum and exam standards, but this move is simply inadequate.

"The credibility of the exam system has seriously declined over recent years.

"Putting exam standards under independent monitoring is therefore the right first step as I argued last week.

"But the government should have the courage of its convictions.

"The whole of the QCA should be replaced by a independent education standards authority - which should not only monitor exams but independently commission and advise upon good educational practice and curriculum issues."

 

Stakeholder response: Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA)

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Dr Mike Cresswell, director general of AQA, said: "We welcome today's announcement by Ed Balls splitting the responsibilities of the QCA.

"AQA firmly believes that there should be a separation between responsibility for the delivery of curriculum and qualification policy developments and the regulation of qualification quality and standards.

"The awarding bodies have always maintained consistent standards in public qualifications both over time and between themselves.

"An independent regulator will further bolster public confidence in those standards.

“We look forward to taking an active role in the consultation which is being launched by the DCSF. 

"As the largest provider of GCSE and GCE qualifications, we have internationally respected expertise in the key issues relating to standards and believe that we will make an important contribution to the consultation. 

"We look forward, in due course, to working with the new regulator."

 

Stakeholder response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL)

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Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: "We believe the QCA has been doing a good job, but it makes sense for Parliament to be responsible for the standard of tests and qualifications, especially if this ends the English disease of constantly questioning whether exams are getting easier.

"However, these changes will not solve the real problem with the current assessment system - the total amount of national testing. 

"All this testing - at seven, 11, 14, 16 and 18 - is highly expensive, but it does not improve children's learning, and the number of tests creates problems of quality control."

 

Stakeholder response: The National Union of Teachers

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Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "Ed Balls' welcome commitment to standards not structures I hope means that we have moved beyond the damaging debate about diversity of schools and on to finding the best way of backing teachers and focusing on children’s needs.

"Every teacher, parent and young person is sick to death of the annual ill-informed criticism of exam standards.

"Young people celebrate their exam success and find doubts are cast about their achievements.

"The establishment of an independent examinations regulator should at long last nail the lie that exam standards have been dumbed down.

"That said, I hope we don’t see the link between curriculum and assessment weakened.

"The next step should be an independent review of our assessment system so that it can enhance learning."

Stakeholder Response: General Teaching Council (GTC)

 

 

To send a comment to the GTC, click here 

General Teaching Council for England (GTC) Chief Executive Keith Bartley says:

"This is a very welcome move. Independent measurement and reporting of standards over time is an important way of assuring the public of the achievement of pupils.

 

"The development of alternative methods to monitor national standards in this way - such as pupil cohort sampling - would lead to a better balance of learning and testing in schools.

 

"This balance – where tests and exams flow from the curriculum and not the other way around - should also allow increased flexibility for the curriculum to be adapted to match the needs of children and young people in the twenty first century.

 

"The QCA has an important and ongoing part to play in building on its role in leading change in the curriculum and assessment systems ".