Andy Burnham Manchester pandemic testing innovations and Andy Burnham Manchester

GCSE and A-level students could sit exams online in major shake-up

Reading now: 357
manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Ofqual, England’s exams regulator, has said it plans to explore online testing. The move could mark a major change in the way GCSE and A-level exams are administered.

In its latest three-year corporate plan, the qualifications watchdog confirmed that it would look into the potential use of online adaptive testing - which tailors questions according to student response - which may see soon see some exams taken online.

The regulator stated that it would “remove regulatory barriers where innovation promotes valid and efficient assessment”. Ofqual’s announcement has been welcomed by teaching unions. READ MORE: Greater Manchester's post-16 education system is broken and Andy Burnham wants to take control of it Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leavers, said that the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic had exposed the potential vulnerability of existing “pen-and-paper” arrangements, adding that these were “ripe for reform”. “Our current reliance on a pen-and-paper exam system, organised at an industrial scale with Fort Knox-style security arrangements around the transportation and storing of papers, is hopelessly outdated and ripe for reform,” he explained.

Exams were badly disrupted by the pandemic, with a huge controversy over GCSE and A-level grading in 2020. Ofqual is currently moving back towards the pre-pandemic assessment system, with the current school year expected to be a transitional one.

Read more on manchestereveningnews.co.uk
The website starsalert.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.

Related News

DMCA