THE ANNUAL AUGUST FRENZY
75. Mr Tomlinson decried the "the annual
August frenzy" surrounding A level results, which he said
was based on the erroneous assumption that "if more students
have achieved the standard then the only way that could have been
done is by somehow lowering the requirements they had to meet"
an allegation which had been consistently repeated over the years.[86]
Sir William Stubbs said that "in recent weeks each of these
elements of trust has been significantly and quite unnecessarily
weakened. Therefore the challenge for those responsible for those
matters in the future will be to restore that trust, but they
do so on the basis that the underlying system is sound, and that
is an enormous strength."[87]
76. Mr Hopkins, of Peter Symonds College, put
in context the impact of the August examination concerns. "As
a college we have nearly 2,500 students, 2,300 studying AS and
A2, so we make 27,000 entries to the three main examining boards
by the time you count all the units and modules. We get something
like 1,000 to 2,000 applications for remarks each year which
result in several hundred upgrades. As a result of the Tomlinson
Inquiry we had one subject where we had 200 module remarks
which resulted in 17 final upgrades. I have to say that although
things went wrong, the vast majority of the experience this summer
was actually right."[88]
77. Mr Neal acknowledged that "it does
appear that concern about public expectations has been part of
the problem".[89]
Ms Tattersall of AQA said that "whenever we publish results
then there is an interest in those results and quite a public
debate about them".[90]
Mr Kerr of Edexcel said "We are not very good at explaining
to people what we do. I am looking at the faces, going round,
and there is still a lack of understanding here, there is clearly
a lack of understanding on the press bench, exactly what we do,
and it is not that difficult".[91]
He added "We get the press we deserve; it is our job to try
to educate the press, it is our job to make clear what we do,
how we do it, and that is bearing fruit".[92]
86 Q.441 Back
87
Q.327 Back
88
Q.268 Back
89
Q.283 Back
90
Q.91 Back
91
Q.176 Back
92
Q.184 Back
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