Qualifications watchdogs has eminently sounded warning bells citing the alarmingly increase in the number of children forced to enter for multiple and early GCSE examinations in individual subjects for boosting pass marks.
Ofqual stated that an increasing number of schools of the region started to play with the existing system and attempt inflating their grades on the table of official league. This tactic has initiated huge concern in official quarters of associations and regulatory authorities that are reportedly urging to stop such demotivating initiatives concerning pupils.
The stunning claim of watchdog authorities just before the announcement of results for GCSE has driven the entire system into a tizzy. They even mentioned that the increasing pressure created by league tables has resulted in rising number of early examinations and even multiple entries by pupils at various levels. The regulatory body has released several figures highlighting the extent of skewed practices involved behind GCSE results of this summer.
According to Ofqual, most cases of early examinations center on pupils who fall under the category of borderline to score ‘C’ grade that is supposedly taken as a better passing score.
The regulator of the state has also reported that an increasing number of students were forced to sit for a number of GCSE in mathematics simultaneously in order to bank higher grades in the subject at final levels.
In addition to this alarming situation, there are reports suggesting an increase in the number of pupils taking part in various examinations at an early age of 13 years, instead of the official 16, so that they can get ample time to register with a better grade in case their initial attempt fail to click.
On the other hand, the chief of regulatory body, Glenys Stacey mentioned that there is a balance between demotivating students with overloaded examinations and improving results legitimately. She even issued a warning stating that such process of multiple examination entries would lead to wastage of public funds. She laid stress on matter that quality of teaching should improve and students should be motivated to sit for single assessment only.
According to Ofqual, 15 per cent of pupils taking maths GCSE have taken the exam boards for at least two times consequently. This has resulted in paving a way to score better results at the final school league tables. According to reports, a large number of students are also sitting for an alternative version of qualification along with that of GCSE at same period, in order to secure there chances at overseas schools.
There was also an increase in the number of entries in Mathematics and English under IGCSE last year. A separate data also reveals stunning figures pointing towards increase in the number of pupils sitting for the GCSE examinations at an early age. Ofqual even stated that at least 23 percent of students taking maths test under GCSE are below 15 years of age, in comparison to 18 per cent reported last year. Reports also suggest that entries for English language saw an increase of about 11 percent of students under 16 years of age.