Today (a Saturday!) the letter from Nick Gibb to the awarding bodies was published on the DFE site (here). The content doesn’t really affect me or our students directly, but nonetheless does concern me for reasons I shall explain.
The DFE have made the decision that iGCSEs (and that includes the “level 1 and 2 certificates) are to be removed permanently from performance tables; originally it was thought that they could be re-introduced but No! So, the upshot is that once again we have Ministerial tinkering, but this time it’s not just the teachers that are being affected – some of the exam bodies will have already started working on adapting their qualifications and now the door is very firmly closed on it.
In my conniving imagination I can almost see some government ministers thinking that the “Brucey bonus” of closing the iGCSE door may be a “shot across the bows” for the examining bodies – a way of sending a message about who is in charge especially given all the shenigans that are going on with regards the new Maths GCSEs.
Last weekend I put together a timeline of meetings and communications between Ofqual and the examining bodies, as far as I could make out given that a couple of the originating letters weren’t published, on this post -> here. The letter from Glenys Stacey refers to a meeting that is taking place this month (Jan) with the intention to (and I quote):
- reiterate the Government’s policy aims for GCSE maths and the approach we have taken to delivering those aims;
- discuss the work now underway on GCSE maths, and the likely timescales, so that all is understood clearly; and
- make sure that everyone has a clear and unequivocal understanding of the GCSE maths guidance.
On the 7th Jan when Mark Dawe (chief executive of OCR) very publicly (TES article) spoke out after the idea of the single exam board was mooted again. He makes some good arguments, but I am much, much, more interested in where the motivation for the rejuvenation of the idea of a single exam board comes from. It’s almost as if the threat of a single exam board is being used as a way to get the exam boards to behave … you can almost imagine the exam boards getting a telling off; when in fact all of the kerfuffle has actually been caused by the whole accreditation process itself.
Mr Dawe referred to a meeting with Ofqual “next week”, which would have been between the 12th and the 16th January. Given that a letter dated 16th January appears on the website on the 17th January I wonder when we will hear what the outcome of this week’s meeting was.
We really shouldn’t be at the stage where we are teaching a course for which the accreditation body has said that there will be future guidance issued and the exam bodies will need to take that into account. What we need now and not in September nor leading up to the actual first exam in 2017 (now means now!) is transparency. We need to know what is going on with the new Maths GCSEs – it’s the right thing to do for our students.
“But why the urgency Mel?” I hear you say! Teachers across the country are starting to teach year 9 and also attending training events about “getting ready to teach” (and there is a cost involved in putting these events on and attending them) .. I should know as we’ve been preparing stuff to deliver at such events.
So there! I also hate not knowing what is going on … just call me nosey!
