One-off exam help for pupils in Raac schools would not be fair – Ofqual chief

Offering a one-off dispensation to all pupils in exam years affected by the concrete crisis would not be fair to everybody receiving their results, the head of England’s exams regulator has suggested.

Sir Ian Bauckham, chief regulator of Ofqual, said it would be “difficult” to allow a special uplift to pupils’ results in schools affected by collapse-risk reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) and then not make adjustments for other factors like teacher shortages and “inadequate” facilities.

The Ofqual chief added that he would be “surprised” if Raac disruption faced by schools and colleges in England affected overall exam results this summer.

His comments come as hundreds of thousands of students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due to receive their A-level results on Thursday.

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A headteachers’ union has said it is “concerned” about the possible impact of the concrete crisis on exam performance after a number of schools were forced to offer remote learning when sub-standard Raac was found in buildings just days before the academic year was due to start last year.

A report earlier this year called for pupils at schools where teaching has been badly affected – such as St Leonard’s Catholic School in Durham – to have their exam results lifted by up to 10%.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Sir Ian said: “It’s very difficult to know how you would draw a line and maintain fairness if you were going to say that it would be right, for example, to give a 10% uplift to one set of circumstances, but not to a range of other circumstances that other people might argue have impacted the quality of education in the schools that they’re running, or they’re working in, or attending.

“So the importance of fairness I think does mean that we have to apply the same rules, the same principles to everybody across the piece when it comes to formal public exams that give those qualifications and grades that will stay with students all the way through their lives and act as proof of what they knew, understood and could do at the point where they were assessed.”

Sir Ian, who used to be chief executive of the Tenax Schools Academy Trust, added: “There are lots of unfortunately difficult problems that affect schools – I’ve dealt with many of these myself over the years – and inadequate facilities, teacher shortages and so on are amongst the problems that schools face.

“But my responsibility as chief regulator is to make sure that our qualification system has integrity and actually represents what students know, understand and can do at the point of the assessment.”

Department for Education (DfE) figures, as of February 8, show 234 education settings in England have been identified as having the collapse-risk concrete in their buildings. Of these, 94 are listed as secondary or all-through state schools, while 11 are post-16 colleges.

But Sir Ian said having confirmed Raac did not necessarily mean there had been “significant disruption” in a school or college as he added that many had dealt with issues with crumbing concrete “quite quickly”.

Speaking ahead of A-level results day, he said: “I would be surprised if there was an impact that was significant enough to impact results figures as a whole.”

Sir Ian added that he was optimistic that universities “will be as flexible as they’re able to be” when deciding whether to accept a pupil if Raac disruption had been set out on their Ucas application form.

This year, exam boards have offered extended coursework deadlines – up to 45 days – to schools and colleges who have struggled to access specialist facilities for non-examination assessments due to Raac.

The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) has said “special consideration” – which is given to a candidate who has temporarily experienced illness, injury or some other event outside of their control at the time of their assessment – will not be granted to pupils who faced disruption to their learning due to Raac.

But Sir Ian said schools will have been able to apply to exam boards under the existing special consideration process – where marks can be adjusted to take into account unforeseen circumstances – if pupils had to sit their exams in conditions which were “less favourable than normal” as a result of Raac.

A “darker, unheated, unventilated” exam hall, or noisy building work during assessments, are some circumstances related to Raac that may warrant a special consideration request, he added.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “Schools and colleges affected by Raac have worked extremely hard to support students whose studies have been disrupted by this issue, and they deserve an enormous amount of credit for all they have done.

“We don’t feel that they were adequately supported by the previous government in this task, and we are concerned about the potential impact on exam performance.”

He added that ASCL will be seeking views from its members to see if the special consideration process for exams has proved to be “a sufficient mitigation” for schools and colleges affected by Raac.

A study by education experts from Durham University in January called for pupils in St Leonard’s and other similarly affected schools to be given “qualification outcomes equivalent to what would have happened in the absence of the crisis.”

Its authors, Professors Stephen Gorard and Nadia Siddiqui from the university’s Evidence Centre for Education, suggested the pupils’ exam grades could be fairly increased by up to 10% this summer.

Prof Gorard said the exam cohort at St Leonard’s “lost time, lessons, and access to teaching resources for a substantial period” due to Raac.

He told PA: “I still think as a one-off measure that cohorts in that school and the few like it deserve some extra consideration.

“Revised deadlines for coursework simply eat into the time available for other revision. And care by universities is unsystematic, and of course only applies to that subset planning to go to university.

A DfE spokesperson: “High and rising school standards are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.

“We know that Raac was disruptive for school and colleges. Alongside Ofqual we have asked awarding organisations to agree longer extensions for coursework and non-exam assessment, where possible.

“The Joint Council for Qualifications have also published further guidance on how established arrangements for special consideration may apply to schools and colleges affected by Raac.”