FEATURE FOCUS: EXAMS
Time to go digital? W
ith Becky Francis’ Curriculum and Assessment Review ongoing, Colin Hughes, CEO of AQA, considers whether this is the ideal opportunity to take the first step towards modernising the way students take their exams.
Curriculum and assessment reviews are special events. They don’t (perhaps thankfully!) come along too often. When they do, it’s imperative not merely to jump on board, but make the
absolute most of the opportunity. The journey offered by Becky Francis’ review, initiated by Bridget Phillipson on her arrival as education secretary, is a particularly attractive one. Neither are wanting to scream off dangerously down a risky road to an unknown curricular nirvana. Both are urging a more pragmatic, stage by stage journey, with a realistic and sensibly-described destination. What is it? Where are we heading? Actually, that needs better articulation than we have seen to date. We don’t need to be thinking about radical upheaval, for the simple reason that neither the curriculum, nor the way it’s assessed, is badly broken in England. On any intelligible international comparison, we’re doing reasonably well. We have a good approach, mixing knowledge and skills in a pedagogically intelligent manner. The legacy of recent governments – red, blue, and orange- tinged – has been mostly positive. So upheaval would be not only horrible, but totally unnecessary.
Why, then, do we need a curriculum and assessment review at all? According to my mark scheme, you get top marks for including all the following in your answer. Some subjects are a little overloaded with content. Not massively, but enough to merit review. Maths at primary is a good case in point. History at GCSE: must we cover a whole
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millennium in order to achieve our laudable cultural aims? In other cases, the prevailing content is either stale (English Language) or out of date and in need of refresh (Religious Education).
We can probably reduce a little the heavy burden of exams that our students sit at 16. It’s possible to study the same depth, but to assess reliably a smaller slice of it at GCSE. Further, we can through these and other mechanisms ease up pressure on teaching time to achieve two linked objectives. The first is to broaden the curriculum: more arts and drama. The second is, happier teachers.
And that’s where the narrative comes in: the ‘big story’ that ministers need to tell about why all this matters. Simply put, we have a couple of major crises in schools today. We are not recruiting enough teachers, and we’re losing them too fast without replacing them. We need to restore some joy in their work. And we have too many young people who are feeling disaffected, not attending, and struggling both to see and realise the value of learning. We have to make school meaningful for them. Other hefty challenges are out there. But the biggest on top of those is the dramatic increase in pupils needing support with special needs or disabilities. It’s not a problem that curriculum and exams can solve. But clever steps in this review could provide significant additional help.
May 2025
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