11th March 2020 15:15
By Blue Tutors
The qualifications regulatory body in Wales has announced that a review of GCSEs might mean a move to exams taken electronically. Reported on the BBC, David Jones, the new chairman of Qualifications Wales said that the move would better reflect the way that young people now live their lives.
Wales is currently in the process of changing education for students between 3 and 16. Traditional subjects will be replaced by six “areas of learning and experience” and will start from 2022. The plan is to continue with the name “GCSE” to avoid confusion and because the qualifications are well respected. However, part of the change is likely to see electronic exams.
Mr Jones said that it’s wrong for students to study on laptops and tablets all the time, and have to sit written exams once per year. The qualifications students study have to move with the world as it changes.
There have been examples of errors in electronic exams in both Wales and Scotland, and it’s important that the technology is ready for the change. Many other countries assess their students electronically, though, and not planning for that change would see us left behind the rest of the world.
There has been a call for GCSEs to be scrapped, but both the exams watchdog and Mr Jones believe that this would be a mistake, despite the changes in the Welsh curriculum meaning a significantly different format.