James Stockdale of ABE qualifications

The Exam Blog was luckily enough to have a James Stockdale. Director OF ABE qualications .(https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-stockdale) over the phone for a chat to talk about exams for the exam blog.

We discussed the challenges the exam boards now face in this corvid crisis. While the Secretary of stage instructed the Ofqual leadership who gave the exam boards no choice but to cancel the exams. In the interim, we have a whole cohort of pupils who have had a summer of computer based, distance learning without any examinations.  We discuss how exams being cancelled has caused the willingness of year 11s to engage with academia to fall off a cliff.

Where will schools and exams be in the Corvid Crisis:

Schools and exam boards might find it hard to adapt to the new world order.  While taking the positive out of Covid 19 we do need to look at delivery and assessment in the wider piece what development we can do to get closer to the pupil. The more we look to find ways for exams to be for the pupil not imposed on them the better the overall outcomes. 

James believes that teachers in 2020 giving judgement on pupils' work for a grade in their GCSE and A levels will leave a huge gap. The teachers will have different views and different standardisation.

There must have been a better way to handle the corvid crisis instead of the wholesale GCSE and A level cancel.  There will be a tall order to re install confidence in the exam service as a whole.  The cascading of requirements for exam boards to deliver the assessment services needs to be looked at and improved. 

This if done well, James believes in the long run will radically improve the exam service. More opinions go to our exam blog.