Select Committee on Education and Skills Third Report


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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