Ofqual Corporate Plan

Ofqual, the organisation that monitors and regulateds GCSEs and A levels have produced their latest corporate plan for 2021 and 2022.

In their corporate plan they stipulate the growing use of tehnology to enhance their corporate goals and improve outcomes. A total mention of 6 times that technology should be increasingly deployed.

This lays the ground work what we predict will be over the next 10 years a conversion of the widest part of the GCSE and A level array of exams. Namely the Maths and English GCSE. Which will all be computer based.

Computer based GCSE and A levels exams are the future for fair quality exams. This will be good news for the portability of exams and where one can take them. Inceasingly suitable for private candidates.

Simon Lebus, head of Ofqual said:

“Covid-19 has acted as a catalyst to these new approaches and we anticipate more changes across the market.

“We welcome these innovations and have been active in engaging with awarding organisations to support their safe implementation in the interests of learners, quality and fairness.”

While:

The government’s education tsar Sir Kevan Collins told the Lords youth unemployment committee on Tuesday that there’s a “big discussion to have about the future of GCSEs”.

“I think there’s a big discussion to have about the future of online exams. I think we need to move more quickly to assess online, because I think that is the future.”

Interim chair Ian Bauckham said they will deploy Ofqual’s “significant expertise in assessment” to evaluate Covid-19’s effect on “our role within the qualification system”.

He added: “We will look for opportunities to improve the resilience of the system and support public confidence in standards, both this year and in the years to come.”

In the plan, Ofqual has again committed to consult on the arrangements for 2022 exams, saying they will put in place “appropriate measures to mitigate risks to fairness and validity”.

Ofqual is receiving funding of £25 million from government to deliver the corporate plan, up from £23.1 million in 2020-21.

THe Ofqual corporate plan says in the use of technology, and in many other areas too, there is much to learn from COVID-19 and its effect on the qualification industry.