2nd November 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
The government has announced that any exam boards publishing exams containing mistakes will be liable to significant fines. Reported on the BBC, there was outrage from many students this summer when numerous A Level and GCSE papers contained mistakes including multiple choice questions where each answer choice was incorrect, and some questions where too little information was given to be able to answer the questions.
England’s exam watchdog, Ofqual, will have the power to impose the fines, which should be proportional to the seriousness of the mistake, and could be up to 10% of the examination board’s turnover. Also, Ofqual ultimately have the power to stop an examination company from setting exams in future.
Schools minister, Nick Gibb, said that it was unacceptable for even one paper to have contained an error, and that hard working students had been let down by the examination boards. However, a spokesperson from the National Union of Students was more diplomatic, and expressed delight at the recent announcement to introduce more accountability for mistakes. He said that some mistakes are inevitable, but that the level of mistakes in this summer’s A Level and GCSE exams was truly unacceptable.