The Times - UK (2022-01-26)

Wednesday January 26 2022

the times

TIMES EDUCATION

COMMISSION

10
Interim Report

the broad and balanced education that
should be offered to all young people. It
has also created perverse incentives.
League tables are based purely on exam
results rather than also taking account of
broader qualities such as extra-curricular
activities, pupil wellbeing, inclusion or
staff retention rates.
The accountability system and the
assessment process have become
muddled, as Amanda Spielman, the chief
inspector, admitted. “We’ve got an
incredible amount of weight hung on
qualifications to measure schools as well
as to measure individuals and I think
that conflation is problematic for the
system,” she said. “The acuteness with
which children are aware of the detail of
mark schemes and very micro-
requirements [has] absolutely ballooned
in the last twenty years, and that has had
a corrosive effect on education.”
The rigidity of the mark scheme
mentality was illustrated vividly by the
novelist Ian McEwan, who recalled his
son asking him questions for an essay on
his book Enduring Love. The boy was
marked down because his well-sourced
explanation of the text did not fit into
the teacher’s grid of correct answers.

‘ gcses are a relic’

Lord Baker of Dorking, who oversaw the
introduction of the national curriculum
and GCSEs as education secretary under
Margaret Thatcher, was one of nine
former education secretaries who told
the commission that they favoured
reform of assessment. “Having
introduced GCSEs, I now want them
scrapped,” he said. “We have a school-
leaving age of 18 so you do not have to
have a certificate at 16 to show what
you’ve achieved.”
The former prime minister Sir John
Major worried about the “stress and
strain” imposed on students by GCSEs.
Lord Blunkett, Labour education
secretary between 1997 and 2001, said
exams at 16 were “pretty well dead” in
their present form, adding: “I would like
a broad qualification that gave young
people the chance to demonstrate the
level of learning they’d reached.” Lord
Adonis, architect of the Blair reforms,
insisted that the present qualifications
were a “hard currency” respected by
parents, employers and universities.
David Miliband, a former Labour
schools minister, said GCSEs “dull down
schooling, disempower educators and
compound inequalities”.
A recent survey of teachers and school
leaders by the Headmasters and
Headmistresses Conference (HMC)
found that 94 per cent of respondents
believed that GCSEs needed complete or
partial reform. Sarah Fletcher, the high
mistress of St Paul’s Girls’ School and
chairwoman of the HMC reform of
assessment working group, admitted that
she was surprised by the strength of
feeling, which was even more
pronounced in the state sector than in
private schools. “I think Covid has
broken the psychological and practical
hold of exams and suggested that we can
change,” she said.

employers lose faith in exams

A growing number of employers are
ignoring exam results in favour of their
own assessments. The accountancy firm
PwC no longer uses GCSEs or A-level
grades to select trainees. Instead it runs
its own psychometric tests. Laura
Hinton, its chief people officer, insisted
that this was a better way of finding the
most talented and diverse recruits.
Dame Sharon White, chairwoman of
the John Lewis Partnership, said her
company was increasingly relying on
online assessment because it had lost
faith in state-run exams. “The system
has become even more narrow, limited
and box-ticking,” she explained. “We try
as far as possible to set to one side
people’s qualifications.”
There is also a scientific case for
looking again at the way children are
assessed. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore,
professor of psychology and cognitive

Case study

How artificial

intelligence can

tailor learning

A

t St John’s

Church of

England

Primary

School in

Wigan, children in year

6 are studying science.

One is learning about

vitamins, another is

looking at a diagram of

human muscles and a

third is being tested on

tabulation. All are on

iPads, with a programme

of lessons created by

artificial intelligence

(AI). The machine

analyses their work and

tailors the learning to

each child, allowing

them to move at their

own pace.

This state primary in

one of the most deprived

parts of the country is at

the forefront of a

technological revolution.

It is part of the Quest

multi-academy trust,

which has taken the

decision to pioneer the

use of AI in education

and has invested in iPads

for every pupil.

Each child has their

own “dashboard” with

tasks set either by the

teacher or the AI and a

section telling them their

strengths and areas for

improvement. They can

view their progress in

every subject on a graph

and also express how

they feel about the

lesson through an emoji

button. One boy who was

working on grammar

posted a frustrated face.

The AI would adjust the

teaching to go over the

material more slowly

and make sure that he

understood the concepts

before moving on.

Laura James, the

principal, insisted that

the children did not

spend the whole day

staring at a screen. They

still write in work books

and the school has a

well-stocked library. “It’s

hybrid learning,” she

said. “It sounds futuristic

but employers want

digital skills and we want

to prepare our children

for the real world.” There

is less marking and

preparation every week.

“It’s helping the teacher

to help the child.”

Staff move quietly

Children at St John’s

school in Wigan have

individual tasks set and

can monitor their

progress and register their

feelings about lessons