Teach Secondary 14.4

An invisible AUTHORITY Alka Sehgal Cuthbert explains why exam boards are the hidden arbiters of what knowledge gets taught in schools... D espite regular media controversies around GCSE exam results, and indeed the exams themselves, those tasked with the writing of questions for national examination papers – the exam boards – tend to conduct their work with relatively little in the way of public scrutiny. As such, there have been some fundamental changes in how exam boards are organised and their educational priorities, which have gone largely unremarked upon by the wider profession. Scholarly affairs The national examinations system for 16-year-olds was a product of Britain’s post-war education system, initially comprising O Levels (taken by the ‘academic’ top 20% of pupils) and CSEs (taken by the rest). Most private schools used assessments produced by exam boards associated with either Oxford or Cambridge Universities. The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES) specialised in exams for grammar school pupils intending to go on to study at university. These were scholarly affairs, derived from the fairly direct relationships schools tended to have with subject departments at both universities. Those exam boards catering to the majority of pupils taking CSEs were organised according to administrative regions. These typically consisted of a Board made up of a Governing Council and an Examinations Committee, whose members came from various walks of life – including academics and serving teachers (the latter often being largest group). Institutional stability The content and framing of the O Level syllabus and exams may have differed from the CSE equivalent, but there was some overlap. Both included the study of canonical books, for example – albeit with the former focusing mainly on older classics, while the latter also included some modern literary texts. The 1979 CSE English exam set by the East Midland Regional Exam Board (EMREB), for instance, featured recommended texts by Muriel Spark, DHLawrence and CarsonMcCullers. Another distinction was that the O Level syllabus was examined by external exams formed of essay questions, while the CSE had three modes of assessment. The CSE systemwas moreover supported by Subject Panels, which would meet regularly to disseminate policy, discuss educational matters and annually review/revise syllabuses. Any proposed changes would require two years’ notice for approval by the Board. Whatever one’s views of Britain’s traditional examination system, over time it at least evinced a high level of professional trust and autonomy among teachers, plus a degree of institutional stability that seems enviable today. Fromcompromise to consolidation Two events stand out for their profound – if unintended – destabilising effects on exam boards. The reasons why are multiple and complex, but the first was the introduction of the unitary GCSE examination in 1986. The second was the Education ReformAct (ERA) in 1988. Moves to replace GCE O Levels and CSE exams with a unitary examhad long been supported by Labour Party members, who saw the existing exams system as the educational expression of a society starkly divided along class lines. Maintaining an entirely separate course and exam taken by only the top 20% of pupils was seen by some as reneging on the promise of a universal education system – namely, a broad and balanced curriculum for all. For Conservatives, the dual exams systemwas a compromise necessitated by a commitment to the principles of meritocracy. ERA introduced, among other things, a new government-appointed inspection body called Ofsted, which soon came to dominate the important processes of both grading and inspecting schools. Overlooked at the time, amid the furore regarding the content of the National Curriculum, were plans to merge some established exam boards, so that a newGCSE exam to be sat by all pupils could be produced. So it was that EMREBmerged with theWest Midland Examination Board to form the Midland Examining Group (MEG), which was latterly incorporated into the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate – which itself later merged with the awarding body known today as OCR (its name deriving from Oxford, Cambridge and Royal Society of Arts). External pressures In 1995, the Midland Examining Group had to produce over 80 GCSE syllabuses that could be deemed ready for publication within a year. Recall that previously, any changes to CSE exams required two years’ notice , and you get a sense of the degree to which the traditional examinations ecosystem and its various relationships had been disrupted. What was lost in this process of reorganisation was the authority of scholarship previously found in those relationships between university scholars, regional education boards and local schools. As their intellectual and ethical authority weakened, exam boards “Britain’s traditional examination systemat least evincedahigh level ofprofessional trust and autonomyamong teachers” 12 teachwire.net/secondary