OPINION: REGULATIONS
A (COMPETING) INSPECTOR CALLS
Could failings in the school exam system teach us something about the operation of the building-inspection regime? Hywel Davies applies his slide rule
You may recall the pre-Christmas scandal of the exam board
executive who was secretly filmed advising a seminar of teachers on the likely wording of upcoming school exam questions. This exposé, by a leading daily newspaper, prompted a national debate about the rights and wrongs of exam boards competing to win over schools, and schools seeking out exams, and examiners, most likely to help them deliver the good results that everyone expects and OFSTED demands. Of course, concerns over the examination system are far from new. The late Dr Richard Pyke, a chartered scientist and engineer who was chief executive of the Royal
Baxi_LZC_CIBSE Journal_HalfDPS_JAN2012 12/12/11 17:53 Page 1
Society of Chemistry and of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, was outspoken on this matter. His Five-Decade Challenge in 2008 set 1,300 of the brightest UK 16 year-olds a two-hour chemistry exam. 1960s O-level questions were mixed with later
Competition in the building-control regime could be dumbing down inspections
questions, the most recent being a 2005 GCSE question. Most of the teenagers were stumped by the earlier questions; this was seen as providing hard evidence of declining standards in science teaching in schools, and a flawed national science curriculum that was too focused on ‘hoop-jumping’. Dr Pike had little doubt that perverse incentives give politicians, examining bodies, quangos and schools a vested interest in keeping standards low, creating a disastrous ‘race to the bottom’. He claimed that MPs had admitted they had no interest in making exams tougher and upsetting middle-class parents, who expect their children to achieve strings of A grades.
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22 CIBSE Journal January 2012
www.cibsejournal.com
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