A Levels are up for sale: part 3

If you are following this debate you will know that I wrote to Ed Balls of the UK government and was fobbed off by one of his minions. So I wrote an open letter to Balls and a follow up letter to the minion. Both of those letters can be found in this blog.

I let sleeping dogs lie for a few days and then did a bit of research. I was told that the Gordon Brown government and the Examinations Boards all have what they call "thorough systems" in place to stop what I am saying is happening: GCSE and A Level examiners teaching students how to pass their own exams in return for money.

This means that if you are prepared to pay an examiner to tell you or your child how to pass the examination that they might have set and might be marking, they will do that for you. In private. Behind closed doors. For the privileged few.

So, I tested these "thorough systems" by carrying out a simple google search ... here is a letter I have just sent off to Balls' minion:

Dear Helen,

I am well aware that you will soon simply consign my responses to your delete button. However, before you do that let me just demonstrate how ineffective your “thorough systems” really are. I have just taken a random sweep via a google search query through just a few Easter 2010 revision courses for GCSE and A Levels. I also included the International Baccalaureate for my own curiosity to see how widespread the examiner money grabbing mentality might be: I found what I expected to find but since you are probably not interested in the IB, I have not included my research results here for you.

1 Here is a page from the very FIRST revision course web site that I looked at: http://www.justincraig.ac.uk/easter_revision.php Scroll down the page and find this:

Guidance from the tutors, many of whom are examiners, on best practise exam technique

Did you see that? ... many of whom are examiners ...

It is a major selling point that some of the tutors on these courses are examiners.

2 Now from the fourth revision web site I visited: http://www.abbeycambridge.co.uk/subjects/easter-revision/index.aspx?pageid={4bd18459-3956-460f-9181-4fb073e57ae1}&tsi=1

Why attend Easter Revision?
... Most of out (sic) tutors hold further degrees; moreover, some of them are examiners in their subject.
Our courses aim to help you master examination technique and boost your subject knowledge.

Did you spot that: some of them are examiners in their subject ... and then they reinforced that by saying: Our courses aim to help you master examination technique and boost your subject knowledge.

3 Then there is the fifth revision web site I went to: http://www.mpw.co.uk/camb/easter-revision.asp?scW=1024

Here they say:

Our tutors are highly-qualified graduates whose experience at MPW has trained them to be particularly adept at building students’ confidence quickly and efficiently. Many are GCSE and A level examiners and are therefore attuned to the requirements and approaches of the various examination boards.

I don’t need to go on do I Helen as I have shown from a small sample that 60% of the providers of revision courses are using examiners as their face to face, behind closed doors, for personal and private financial reward, tutors. So, people who are prepared to pay for the privilege get access to the very people who may have set and could well be marking their own, their very own, examination scripts.

I don’t intend to give you any get out clauses here Helen and I do expect you to do something other than fob me off as you did with your original email last week.

What is happening is happening in spite of your supposed “thorough systems” and in spite of the Examination Boards’ protestations that it is not happening. One day this campaign that I am part of will hit home with a minister, MP or civil servant who will finally see that our GCSE and A Level system is rotten from the core. When that day comes, I sincerely hope that the many people who have been party to fobbing off the likes of me will resign en masse.

Best wishes

DW

PS Chris Sivewright has been working on this campaign, to stop this inner rot, for even longer than I have. He chided me the other day as you might have seen by telling me to acknowledge the work of others. Fair point Chris and in my defence I told him that because of the work I do and the location of where I do it, I am largely working on my part of this in isolation and things happen as they happen. Whilst I wish I were part of a fully coordinated campaign I cannot be. I am glad, though, every now and again to tell people that I am not the only person fighting this campaign. In fact, thousands and thousands of people are ... whether actively or passively!