exam board rewrite

Exam board ‘pressured to harshly change GCSE’s grade boundaries’

Ofqual pleaded to an exam board to change the grade boundaries, seen as they only changed the boundaries two weeks before the results were published. They’re letters to Edexcel expressing their concern about the rising number of C’s and asking the board to act quickly. The board responded days later saying the grade boundaries were fair and there was no justification for further changes. David Richards, a former head teacher and Ofqual board member; said “I think it’s a ridiculous that Ofqual think they can change exam boundaries two weeks before results day it’s outrageous to think that it’s easy to get a grade C in English. I was a head teacher for 14 years and I never thought at any moment that the English grade boundaries were too lenient”. Ofqual said that the letters were to just ensue that standards were maintained, and comparable with previous years. Meanwhile in Wales it’s emerged that students are set to receive higher English grades after the education minister after he demanded there papers to be remarked. Robert Collins said that it’s an “injustice” for welsh students after the row over students being awarded lower grades than expected. Ofqual’s director of standards wrote to Edexcel on the 7^th of august saying they needed to act quickly to make the grade boundaries higher than they might normally be required. Edexcel then replied two weeks before the GCSE results were published. They believe that there is no reason for people to change the grade boundaries because they think they are fair. Ofqual believe they should still higher the grade boundaries from 55 out of 96 to 65 out of 96. Ofqual replied on august 9^th with a letter saying that edexcel was obliged to ensure that it’s results were consistent with other awarding bodies.