56 International The EconomistNovember 28th 2020
2 students’ grades. These were higher than
usual, according to data collected by uk
naric(see chart). To produce results com-
parable to the previous year’s, Irish moder-
ators would have had to lower 60% of the
grades teachers had suggested for final-
year students registered to sit the most dif-
ficult papers. They let all but a fifth stand.
In France 96% of pupils earned a school-
leaver’s certificate, up from 88% in 2019.
Authorities in England were harsher.
They lowered 40% of the grades teachers
had proposed for a-levels (exams taken at
18). Outrage ensued. Critics pointed out
that the approach moderators had taken
risked hurting some children from low-
achieving schools. The government even-
tually agreed that the teacher-suggested
grades would stand; as a result the share of
entries receiving one of the two highest
marks has risen from about one-quarter in
2019 to more than one-third this year. Mary
Richardson of University College London
says the government was “foolish” to think
it could “normalise a completely abnormal
situation”. Mr Schleicher from the oecd
thinks that by both cancelling exams and
abandoning all moderation England ended
up with “the worst of all worlds”.
The muddle has revived long-running
debates about the value of exams. A few
days or hours of testing is a crude way to as-
sess students’ performance in courses that
have lasted a year or more. Exams disad-
vantage clever pupils who deal badly with
pressure. Relying on them too much can
lead to narrow curricula which include
only things that can be tested affordably.
Time spent teaching youngsters strategies
to maximise their exam scores could other-
wise be spent learning more useful stuff.
Some psychologists worry that the pres-
sure of exams is raising the risk that vul-
nerable youngsters will develop mental-
health problems, early signs of which often
appear during adolescence and early adult-
hood. Exams can also label children as fail-
ures, when they had no choice but to attend
bad schools. And rich parents often pay for
tutoring to boost their offspring’s chances.
Yet abandoning exams creates new pro-
blems. Continuous assessment means pu-
pils may simply “learn stuff, get a grade and
then forget it”, says Dylan William, a British
expert in educational assessment. Course-
work can encourage students to tinker
endlessly with just a few pieces of work.
Junking exams only introduces new kinds
of stress if the alternative is that all school-
work counts towards final grades. Without
objective assessments, learners from poor
homes are more likely to be judged on their
backgrounds than on their actual achieve-
ments.
Teachers sometimes show bias when
marking pupils’ work. A study of 11-year-
olds in England compared the grades
teachers awarded with scores the same pu-pils achieved in tests marked blindly. It
found that teachers were more likely to
give black pupils lower marks than they de-
served. According to research published in
2019, some teachers in New York state gave
worse marks to essays when they were led
to believe the author was fat. Wealthy par-
ents are more likely than poor ones to put
pressure on teachers to boost their chil-
dren’s scores. Worries about corruption
help explain why exams remain so crucial
to education in China and South Korea.
Teachers in Britain tend to under-pre-
dict how well clever pupils from poorer
backgrounds will perform in exams. In
Wales, where results this year were based
on teachers’ predictions, grades rose across
the board, but the difference between the
number of rich and poor children receiving
the highest marks was wider than usual in
several subjects, notes Rhian Barrance at
the University of Cardiff.Revising the system
Some countries had begun making
changes before the pandemic hit. Reforms
in France mean that from this year school-
leavers are supposed to enter their final ex-
ams with 40% of their marks already in the
bag; previously everything depended on
the tests. A few years ago England moved in
the opposite direction by abandoning
coursework and reprioritising end-of-
course exams. In 2019 an admissions scan-
dal forced South Korea’s government to say
it would review a programme that seeks to
make exam scores less critical to university
applications. Chinese officials talk end-
lessly about shaking up the gaokao, but
have only tinkered with it.
The pandemic may amplify calls to get
rid of exams that some already thought un-
necessary. Universities in America tradi-
tionally ask applicants to sit the sator act,
tests which are not required by the publicschool system. This year many universities
waived that requirement after many exam
sittings were cancelled. This delighted crit-
ics of testing, who say the exams advantage
richer applicants who can pay for test-prep.
About 70% of American universities offer-
ing four-year courses now operate “test-
optional” admissions policies, up from
around 45% before the pandemic.
In England the pandemic has raised
fresh questions about the future of gcses, a
flurry of exams taken by 16-year-olds.
These have become less crucial as a result
of reforms that require teenagers to stay in
some kind of education or training until
they are 18. Developing countries have been
gradually junking exams they have tradi-
tionally used to decide which children may
enter secondary school. This year’s crisis
could speed that up.
But the disruptions of 2020 have made
clear that exams are useful. Some teachers’
unions in France argue that inflated grades
of the sort handed out this summer risk be-
coming a permanent fixture as a result of
the government’s efforts to de-emphasise
exams. Teachers in England did not enjoy
helping decide who should pass or fail,
says Lee Elliot Major, a professor of social
mobility at Exeter University. Many will be
pleased when external examiners relieve
them of that burden.
How exams should proceed next year
remains a pressing question. Many coun-
tries that closed schools during the early
months of the pandemic have managed to
keep them open during later lockdowns.
But lots of children are still having to re-
turn to stints of remote learning when
there are suspicions of infections among
their peers. In October secondary-school
attendance rates ranged from a little over
60% in some areas of England to more than
90% in others. They are lowest in places
that already had lots of poor children. In
mid-November education authorities in
Wales cancelled school-leavers’ exams set
for next spring. Politicians said it would be
unfair to require youngsters to sit a com-
mon exam, given that the pandemic has af-
fected them in different ways.
Sandra Milligan of Melbourne Universi-
ty thinks officials in the Australian state of
Victoria have found “the disaster” in Eng-
land helpful in working out “what not to
do” with their own tests. Final exams are
going ahead there, even though pupils have
endured long lockdowns. Those who score
unusually poorly may have their grades
raised using a system similar to one that
has long benefited candidates who suffer
illness or trauma. Ms Milligan would like
to see examinations become less central to
Victoria’s school system, but opposed
those who saw this year’s crisis as an op-
portunity to rush out changes. Half-cocked
school reforms risk hurting those “who can
least look after themselves”. 7Positive test results
GradedistributionsSource:UKNARIC *ExcludesScotland †AtHigherLevel201820192020100806040200Britain*, A-level, as % of all passesEA20192020100806040200France, Diplôme du baccalauréat général
As % of all passesTrè s b i e n Passable201820192020100806040200Ireland,LeavingCertificate†,%
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