June GCSE English exams ‘properly graded’ finds Ofqual

Ofqual launched an investigation into the marking of this year’s English GCSE exams following an outcry after many more student than expected failed to achieve grade A*-C.

It found that the “June grade boundaries were properly set, and candidates work properly graded,” and concluded that “revisiting the June grade boundaries would contradict our responsibility to maintain standards”.

However despite giving the marking in June a clean bill of health, the inquiry found there had been a problem earlier in the year.

Describing what happened as “a complex and unique set of circumstances”, Ofqual concluded that in January because only seven per cent of candidates sat the GCSE English exam it had been hard for the examiners to assess how to mark so few papers, and they had been overly lenient.

Ofqual Chief Regulator Glenys Stacey said in a statement:

“The issue is not the June, but the January boundaries … examiners used their best judgement in setting these boundaries, but they had less data and information to work with. Most candidates were not sitting at the time, they were waiting for June, and because they were new qualifications, examiners could not rely so much on direct comparisons with the past. As a result, those grade boundaries were set generously.”

Teachers complained that thousands of pupils who sat the June exam received a D grade instead of a C – a result that could make a significant difference to a pupil’s ability to continue in further education. Ofqual admitted that “understandably, schools were over-reliant on the January 2012 boundaries to set expectations as there was little other information available to them.”

In response to the complaints from schools, each of the exam boards involved will now offer an exceptional one-off resit in November 2012. Schools who have made enquiries about individual pupil’s results can withdraw these and incur no cost if they wish.