17th April 2014 9:00
By Blue Tutors
The government has announced plans to mark GCSE papers in accordance with Chinese standards after exam regulators’ complaints that grades have been inflated over the years. From 2017, GCSE students will be benchmarked against Chinese students of the same age, in an attempt to increase confidence in the discredited exam system. The Education Secretary has been lobbying exams regulator of Ofqual to link GCSE grades with level achieved by students in the world’s highest performing countries such as China and Sweden. Ofqual announced that they would accede to the request, particularly given England’s poor performance in international league tables.
The Pisa tests which measure the performance of students in different countries showed that England’s pupils were significantly behind their counterparts in Sweden, China, Japan and South Korea. Ofqual is proposing to change the midpoint in the new GCSE, making it significantly harder to achieve the equivalent of a grade C. The C grade midpoint will become grade 5 under the new system, and Ofqual has said that this grade will be more demanding, in line with high-performing countries. The watchdog has estimated that grade five will be about two-thirds higher than the former grade C boundary, in an attempt to bring results in line with high performing countries. Teaching Unions have warned against introducing an international educational currency, pointing out that some countries exclude certain categories of students in order to boost their results.
The association of school and college leaders has said that the Pisa tests are not representative and should not be used to influence grade boundaries in the new exam. Pisa tests take only a small sample of students from each country, and governments have significant influence over which schools take part. Further, it was pointed out that the new GCSE exam is a markedly different kind of exam from the Pisa tests, making the new benchmark inappropriate and deeply concerning. The National Association of Head Teachers has also voiced concerns, stating the Ofqual’s use of Pisa tests was worrying, and not well thought out.