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‘ofqual’

What should FE expect in the coming years?

With the budget announcements tomorrow coinciding with the half way point for this Government, Steve Besley, Head of Policy at Pearson, looks at what might lie ahead for the world of FE  The end of the year is always a busy time for the FE sector but this year it brings the added twist of marking the […]

Opinion

January exams at centre of row with watchdog

Plans to scrap staggered A-level exams and limit resit opportunities have been branded “overzealous changes” that could “thwart” learning. The Institute for Learning (IfL) hit out after exam watchdog Ofqual announced that from September next year students in England would no longer be able to sit papers in January, and from 2014 candidates would get […]

News

January exams at centre of row with watchdog

Plans to scrap staggered A-level exams and limit resit opportunities have been branded “overzealous changes” that could “thwart” learning. The Institute for Learning (IfL) hit out after exam watchdog Ofqual announced that from September next year students in England would no longer be able to sit papers in January, and from 2014 candidates would get […]

News

Fears over conflict of interest

The qualifications watchdog is “developing its thinking” on whether providers of apprenticeships should also be awarding bodies after a government report criticised the practice. An Ofqual spokesperson said it was looking at “potential conflicts of interest and will be saying more about our thinking in due course”.  “We do not believe it is desirable for […]

News

New courses bypass the regulator

The government has allowed new adult English and maths qualifications to be funded without the usual approval of an independent regulatory body because “gaps in provision were causing issues”. The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) said new qualifications were due to be available from August, but that the timescales for their development and accreditation had been […]

News

Ofqual indentifies issues with internal assessment of ESOL provision

Assessment malpractice, funding uncertainties, new courses and immigration rules were the hot topics of discussion at a conference on English courses for foreigners. Ian Dexter, reform officer at Ofqual, kicked off the sold-out event with a presentation on proposals for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). He told the audience at London’s Morley College […]

Uncategorized

Ofqual consults on ESOL

Regulations that govern foreign learners of English could be scrapped. Ofqual is considering three options for the future of ESOL (English for speakers of other languages), including the withdrawal of existing regulations for ESOL Skills for Life and ESOL for Work qualifications. Other suggestions are for a new qualification called ESOL for Life in the […]

News

Who’s fooling who over the GCSE fiasco?

Professor Daniel Khan OBE, chief executive of OCN London, considers this year’s change in grade boundaries. Since thousands of 16-year-olds collected their GCSE results, the unprecedented decline in A* to C grades has hardly been out of the press. For the first time in the history of the qualification, the percentage of students gaining these […]

Opinion

Exam reform would stop ‘race to the bottom’, say MPs

A radical shake-up of the qualifications system for 15 to 19-year-olds in England has been proposed by an influential cross-party committee of backbench MPs. The Education Select Committee concluded a near year-long investigation that focused on GCSEs and A-levels with a recommendation that exam boards lose the right to set their own syllabuses for each […]

News