Summer 2022 exam series
The summer 2022 exam series was a difficult period for many exams officers. The DfE described the 2021/2022 academic year as a ‘transition’ year, and therefore, perhaps certain issues were to be expected following two summers without timetabled written examinations and the wider impact of the pandemic. This should not, however, distract from two facts. Firstly, the experience of recent weeks has shown that there are areas within the examinations system which need to be addressed, and secondly, thanks largely to the efforts of the exams officer community (described as ‘unsung heroes’ during a recent JCQ Teacher Association meeting), candidates experienced little or no issues and were able to sit their examinations under the best possible conditions.
Exams officers in every centre should be congratulated for their effort, commitment and dedication to the role which helped to ensure that the summer 2022 exam series passed off with few major issues, and that candidates were given every opportunity – within the regulations – to perform to the best of their abilities.
To assess the issues which were faced by exams officers during the summer series, between 11 and 17 July, an online survey was conducted which revealed the following as the most prominent areas of concern during the exam period:
Exams officer support
- Long waiting times on awarding body telephone support lines
- Awarding body support staff being unaware of regulations or having to message other staff for answers (causing delay when answers are required urgently, and a lengthy delay before a reply is received, particularly AQA) or providing incorrect/conflicting information
- Unfortunately, most of the issues revolved around AQA and Pearson telephone support and AQA centre services. With regard to the latter, feedback included information not arranged in a logical order (e.g. MFL listening files are under ‘Resources with past papers’), sending codes to mobile phones for access which causes issues if there is a poor signal, or the exams officer has no access to their phone and the inability to print registers
Paper download
- The inconsistency in timings for paper download. AQA allow for pdf versions of papers to be downloaded no earlier than 60 minutes before the published start time whereas other awarding body papers are available from 7.30am. This causes issues with AQA examinations when a large number of access arrangements are also involved, and particularly for afternoon examinations
- There is an added complication with WJEC/Eduqas where a code needs to be obtained separately to access the online version of the question paper
Lack of standardisation amongst awarding bodies
- A lack of consistency/increasingly different ways of working has led to substantially more work and time taken to complete tasks - as well as a greater likelihood of maladministration. Inconsistent processes include submissions of work/evidence, attendance registers, postage labels etc.
AQA yellow labels
- Many exams officers reported that AQA either sent too many labels to centres or not enough. If an insufficient amount were sent, this led to centres having to print labels the day before the examination which also required having to pass several, time consuming, security checks
Time consuming activities/duplication of work
- During a busy exam day/period, a great deal of time taken to upload candidate work/information to awarding body portals and the ability to only upload a few files at a time
- The requirement to dispatch AQA modern foreign language registers when speaking files have been uploaded electronically, with an additional covering note which contains much of the same information as the attendance register
- Time taken to make special consideration applications to individual awarding bodies, when perhaps Access Arrangements Online could be utilised to save duplication of applications
Timetabling
- Pressure is placed upon exams officers when A levels are arranged in the same session as ‘popular’ GCSE subjects (e.g. core subject GCSEs, MFL speaking and listening), or when long GCE and GCSE exams are timetabled in the afternoon. There were also issues experienced by some centres as exams were timetabled during a Jewish festival, and many exams officers requested that core GCSEs are timetabled in a manner so that they are ‘better spread out’
- Difficulties were also reported when two English papers were taken in one sitting and with only 20 minutes between the two papers there were logistical issues/insufficient time in relation to the dissemination of access arrangements (e.g. word processors, extra time etc.)
Access arrangements
- Some exams officers reported an abuse of access arrangements. Whilst extra time cases have reduced in number, there has been a sharp increase in the number of ‘unauthorised’ rest breaks awarded, with many centres deciding to awarding extra time and supervised rest breaks even despite a lack of evidence. Therefore, many exams officers have called for a tightening of the monitoring/instructions for ‘normal way of working’ as an increasing number of access arrangements are being awarded as a result of demands from ‘pushy parents’
Delivery of confidential examination materials
- Many centres reported a poor service from couriers who are responsible for the dispatch of awarding body confidential examination materials, with many instances of damaged delivery packages/content, poor delivery process (e.g. lack of security) etc.
These issues have been reported to, and discussed with, the JCQ and its awarding bodies, and Ofqual. We must appreciate the impact that the pandemic has had upon awarding bodies and that it will take a period of time before they can deliver the level of service which they were providing pre-COVID, however, we must also work hard to ensure that the issues faced this year are not repeated during summer 2023.
Cost of living
Like other representative organisations, the NAEO is concerned about the impact which rising costs are having on our members. Therefore, in recent weeks, we have written to associations and trade unions which represent staff within the education sector (including ASCL, UNISON and NEU) to discuss how we can work collaboratively to ensure that exams officers are represented effectively in the coming months.
Exams Officer of the Year 2022
Finally, congratulations to Anjali Manek who was announced as the NAEO Exams Officer of the Year 2022.
Anjali, who is Head of Examinations at Merchant Taylor's School, Northwood, was presented with her award, and £500 of gift vouchers, by our Chair, Tim Fisher, and the Chief Regulator at Ofqual, Dr Jo Saxton.
Gemma Loates, exams officer at Sir William Perkins School, Chertsey, was announced at the first runner-up, whilst Charlotte Morgan-McGeechan, exams officer at Ashby School, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, was presented with a prize as second runner-up.
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