Confidence lost in GCSE and A level marking.

Some facts and figures have just been published about the amount of appeals and remarks that have been requested this year by schools for GCSE and A Level candidates.

The Telegraphs sums up the basics quite nicely here - Telegraph - appeals

I was staggered to see that 305 400 GCSE papers were asked to be remarked - a 50% increase on last year.

Let's just let those numbers sink in for a moment....

Each Year 11 has about half a million students in.  It seems about 60% of these students had a result appealed on.  That shows a huge lack of confidence in the exam system.  In an average school of 200 students in year 11, 120 of them are having one GCSE grade challenged.

In addition, appeals cost money.  The amount an appeal cost varies from exam board to exam board but a fee of £25 would be on the conservative side.

Across the country, 305 400 appeals costing £25 totals just over £7.5 million....

Around 20% of these appeals resulted in the grade being changed and the cost of the appeal is refunded to whomever paid it but the time and admin cost to the school is not repaid.

At A level there is a similar picture, with 145 000 grades being challenged.  These generally seem a little bit more expensive to appeal so let's assume £30 (which is definitely on the conservative side).   145 000 appeals at £30 a time gives a total cost of £4.3 million.

So, in total, from one exam season, schools have spent well over £10 million on appeals allowing for the refunds on successful appeals.   This money should be spent in so many more fruitful ways and I am surprised this information has caused such small ripples in the media in our times of austerity.

So, what are the solutions?

1.  Schools need to be clear on their appeals process.  The process is expensive and schools have a responsibility to only appeal where there is a good chance of a grade change.

2.  The exam board needs to mark to a far higher standard.  The checks on markers need to be more rigorous and regular.  In addition, schools need to be made aware of this process of checking so that they become less likely to appeal.

3.  With more and more subjects now being examined in the summer, the pressure on exam boards to turn around results in time for results day is only going to increase.  Exam boards need to up their game.

4.  Finally, the key solution would for an exam board to promise to return all exam papers to the school as part of the fee paid to enter students.  This would give teachers the opportunity to see exactly how their students had performed and to use this to inform their future teaching.  I know it would then cost a bit more to enter students but would probably save money in the long run for schools as appeals would become less likely.

It would just take one exam board to promise it in one subject for it to take off.....

There have to be better ways of spending £12 million pounds...