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)