Rise in GCSE grade changes blamed on exam boards by Ofqual

The head of England’s exams watchdog has told MPs that an increase in the number of GCSE grade changes this year was down to exam boards failing to follow new rules on re-marking.

According to The Guardian, Sally Collier, chief regulator at Ofqual said she was “very disappointed” with the 52 per cent increase in grade changes this summer, which followed reforms aimed at tightening up re-marking, and she promised action to ensure it didn’t happen again.

Giving evidence to the Commons education select committee, Collier said Ofqual was in the process of talking with exam boards about what went wrong, but an investigation had already shown there were no problems with the original marking.

Collier said: “We’ve had a look at marking consistency metrics across all of the exam boards and the level of consistency in that marking was very similar to last year. So nothing happened in the original quality of marking that suggests there was a problem.

“There has been a problem with the reviewing. That problem is not consistent across the exam boards. Some exam boards have implemented it very well, and some exam boards haven’t.”

Before, exam results that were challenged were re-marked in detail, with higher marks often the result of minor differences in opinion between markers. Under Ofqual’s reforms, marks are only supposed to be changed if a clear marking or procedural error is discovered.