Following the Daily Telegraph expose of exam board seminars Ofqual have accepted that a WJEC GCSE ICT exam paper due to be sat in January has been compromised because of comments made by an examiner in a seminar. Ofsted have therefore required WJEC to withdraw the paper and postpone the exam.
Ofqual are reviewing the evidence for other papers but no others are imminent.
Ofqual are also considering the role of seminars. On the one hand exam boards are expected to "make sure that schools and colleges are given advice and guidance on the teaching and assessment of qualifications"; on the other hand the system is clearly open to abuse. Ofqual do attend seminars for monitoring purposes "on a spot check basis, and find them well run, in our presence, but that is not surprising." Ofqual have "considered stopping seminars immediately, but this leaves the seminar market open to unregulated providers."
Ofqual are also conducting further reviews into the comparability of exam boards. Research already published suggests that the gap between the WJEC and other exam boards has narrowed over recent years.
Ofqual's full report is available
here.
