Exams Fiasco: Ofqual drop Gav and Gibb in it.

[noblegiraffe]

The Ed Select committee grilled Ofqual today about how we ended up where we are.

Tweet thread of it here: twitter.com/johndickenssw/status/1301081230629367809?s=21

Interesting points:

"Taylor says Ofqual's first choice was to hold exams, second was to delay exams, and third choice was to offer 'teacher certificate' - and says it was SOS that took decision without consultation with Ofqual that exams were to be cancelled and grades awarded"

"On the fiasco of mock exam appeal, Ofqual said they were not confident this could be delivered in statutory duties of Ofqual - but Williamson announced anyway. Ofqual attempted to find way to implement it, published this, but then contacted by SOS to say not in line with policy"

"Taylor adds the new guidance on mock appeals was agreed with Williamson's office before it was published, before SOS then called later that evening calling for it to be withdrawn!"

"Taylor said they ran a number of mechanisms to identify outlier candidates - but said a form of appeal was necessary to make this work, alongside a system of outreach to pupils to let them know they have a 'good' case for appeal (but then mock appeal announcement hit)"

Another commentary thread here:

twitter.com/miss_mcinerney/status/1301185559294029824?s=21

Interesting points:

"A few thoughts on the Ofqual grilling by MPs this morning:

1. Nick Gibb was said to be receiving weekly briefings. Weekly! And he’s not inexperienced. He’s been schools minister for 8 of the last 10 years. If Gav didn’t know stuff, is Gibb to blame?"

"2. Ofqual say they offered a ‘multiple paper’ plan - where students could sit different exam papers at different times. (Eg if ill). Never heard this before - but it’s the most credible plan to ensure exams could go ahead next year, & maybe could have happened this year."

The multiple paper option sounds like a very good idea to me! So it'll never happen.
Interesting but not at all surprising that Ofqual were ignored. Makes the resignation at the top look even more interesting.

Someone had to take one for the guys team 🙄

And so they should drop Gav and Gibb in it. Who were the DfE advisors?

They have screwed up the system this year totally and are now going to tit about with next year.

Gav is about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

Just remember that Roger Taylor has a whole launderette worth of dirty washing
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr_Foster_Intelligence

Can’t see Taylor on that page, Listening?

I was surprised Collier and not Taylor went.

The multiple paper option sounds like a very good idea to me!

Yes! Why the fuck didn’t the DfE actually listen to Ofqual? I note that they put it firmly at Gav’s feet and not Jonathan Slater who he sacked.

Noble
He founded the company.
The Eye has gone on about it for years and years
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/the-mysterious-dr-foster-1831647.html
www.theguardian.com/profile/roger-taylor
schoolsweek.co.uk/roger-taylor-appointed-as-new-chair-of-exams-regulator-ofqual/

Or to look at it another way - Ofqual’s first two options were ones the government would not have accepted given their general Covid strategy.

If they had agreed for exams to go ahead, there would have been pressure for exam years to be back in school, with knock on effects elsewhere, and that would have caused other problems with lockdown compliance.

Given that, the given grades option was the only one I believe GW was actually free to choose. As it was ofqual’s third and presumably least favoured choice, maybe they didn’t explore it as well as they should?

The grades option wasn’t any of Ofqual’s options, Ellmau, Gav made that one up himself. Ofqual wanted a teacher certificate for progression.