Consultation on more screen time in schools for GCSE and A-level students

[noblegiraffe]

Exam boards are really keen to move to screen-based assessments because this will reduce their costs. They are calling this 'innovation'.

Despite the lack of benefits for students, and huge logistical and technological challenges for schools, Ofqual is running a consultation on allowing this to happen.

If you don't want your child to be subjected to more screen time in schools in order to prepare them for these screen-based assessments, or if you work in a school and are wondering how on earth schools are meant to deliver these with crappy IT provision, lack of devices and wifi that falls over if a class all try to log on at the same time, please respond to the consultation.

You don't need to fill out all the many boxes, you could just put a response in the first box about Ofqual's guiding principles (i.e. the assumption that moving to on-screen assessment is a good idea in the first place). Q13 is a box to say if you have any concerns about the delivery of on-screen assessments.

Your response can also be anonymous.

https://ofqual.citizenspace.com/public/regulating-on-screen-assessments/

We don't have enough computer rooms for a third of the year groups at one time. There's absolutely no way our infrastructure would hold up to on screen exams.

Presumably a normal computer room wouldn't be allowed for screen-based assessments as you could easily look at the screen next to you? I'm assuming the desks need to be a certain distance apart?

Computer rooms being out of action for exam season, mock season and for prepping kids for on-screen assessment would severely reduce the ability to deliver computing lessons too.

We have removable boards we use between the computers for computing exams (and exams taken on computers) and the JCQ inspector has never had an issue with them.

Taking classrooms out of action for months would be far worse than the current situation where PE have to move out of the sports hall.

But on screen exams are a terrible idea.

I responded to the questionnaire before half term. I'm an exams officer and my school does one subject that only has an onscreen exam option. That subject has been dropped, with current year 11 being the last year, as the students underperform hugely compared to other subjects. Before the move to the onscreen exam the results were in line with the other vocational subjects.

I think if there is a large scale move to on screen exams there will be a large number of very experienced exams officers leaving. I'm already planning to leave as soon as my youngest no longer needs holiday care. I am not sticking around for on screen exams.

That's interesting that your cohort were disadvantaged by the on-screen exam, why do you think that was?

One thing I wrote very strongly in the consultation that nowhere have they considered the impact on the workload of school staff. No one ever cares about ditching more work on teachers in the pursuit of cutting their own costs and workload, as the exam boards are doing here.

It's pretty shocking, tbh. The whole consultation is about how to mitigate the impacts on students. If it doesn't benefit students, then why the hell are they pushing ahead with it?