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Your support makes all the difference.Michael Gove's reforms to GCSEs and A-levels will amount to nothing more than "houses built on sand" if he fails to tackle the deep failings in the way exams are marked and grades awarded, top independent schools have warned the Education Secretary.
The heads lambasted "shocking" marking standards as it emerged they have led to tens of thousands of pupils getting the wrong grades in both GCSE and A-level exams.
Up to 150,000 pupils – one in four – receive the wrong GCSE grades every year because of shoddy marking by examiners, a report by the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), which represents many of the country's most elite independent schools, revealed.
Heads warned that Mr Gove's move to make just one exam board responsible for each core subject area may even exacerbate the situation.
One head, Christopher Ray, high master of Manchester Grammar School and chairman of the HMC, said: "The only device many of us have is to say to boards if we don't like their service: 'We'll move somewhere else.' If there is nowhere else to move, that market pressure goes. The perceived arrogance and complacency of the awarding bodies becomes worse because it is a monopoly."
Poor-quality marking coupled with "inexplicable inconsistencies" over awarding of grades has also led to fewer teachers having confidence in the exam system, the HMC added. Last night heads joined forces to decry what they described as an exam system "in deterioration and decay".
Mr Ray said: "The state of the examinations industry is truly shocking and is clearly no longer fit for purpose. The problems go far deeper than this year's disastrous mishandling of the English language GCSE grades." John Claughton, chief master of King Edward's Boys' School in Birmingham, which has regularly topped exam-performance tables, said: "The vast majority of heads bite their lips and put up with it. I think it has probably got worse in the past decade – particularly at A-level."
The report also criticises exam boards for adopting "a culture of secrecy" over faults and says Ofqual has not paid enough attention to the problem.
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