Ofqual has recently drawn attention to the outdated ways in which exams are delivered. Under its chief regulator, Jo Saxton, the organisation is asking why assessments are still generally taken with pen and paper in a world where so much is done digitally. It’s a good question, but after a two-year pause on high-stakes assessments because of Covid, the immediate return to traditional exams has caused many to ask still more fundamental ones. Is our assessment system fair on learners? Is it relevant to today’s economy? And importantly, does it help students get on?
A consensus is growing to the effect that digital technology has the potential to create new mechanisms for capturing progress and presenting it to future employers and training providers. That’s welcome, but at the heart of this has to be a commitment to capturing more information about what young people achieve throughout their education.
