Report fails 'shambolic' exam system

Demands for further reform of the exam system will intensify today following the disclosure of a highly critical government report which condemns the performance of the three exam boards in England as shambolic.

Officials in the Cabinet Office have compiled a damning list of failings by the three boards, Edexcel, AQA and OCR, which are accused of letting down thousands of children.

The report comes from a unit established in Whitehall to streamline the management of schools, reducing the burden created by red tape, bureaucracy and systems of accountability. Exam board failings are adding significantly to that burden, the unit's report says.

Its disclosure comes in the middle of the exam season, which has again been dogged by a series of blunders.

In the most recent, Edexcel apologised for setting a paper with the wrong number of questions. But the AQA board was also forced to apologise after it asked questions in an English paper about poetry which was not on its exam syllabus.

AS-level exams have also come under fire for the second year, because of the burden they impose on students in the first year of the sixth form - being examined at A-level standard after only two terms of work.

Despite persistent concern about the new exam which was introduced only last year, ministers have so far dug in their heels against a further review.

They have also resisted calls from head teachers for a review of the exam system as a whole, which underwent radical change under the Conservatives when what were then five exam boards were amalgamated into the current three.

However, the Cabinet Office report is certain to put pressure on Education Secretary Estelle Morris to create a single, government-controlled organisation to run the exam system.

It criticises the lack of co-ordination between the three existing boards and says teachers are suffering under a shambolic system, with papers delivered after the exam date, unsolvable questions and frequent marking errors.

It highlights the lack of cohesion between the boards, citing "different deadlines for receipt and return of information, different exam procedures and a lack of consistency in sampling requests". These were said to contribute to an increase in the number of exam clashes.

It says papers "can be very late or even arrive after exams " and describes the boards' response to problems as poor. Guidance for teachers is inadequate, it says, and the paperwork attached to the system complex and duplicative.

George Turnbull, spokesman for the Joint Council for General Qualifications which represents the three boards, denied the charges. He reportedly said today: "The consistency and co-operation between the exam boards has never been as high as it is now. Through the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, we are bound to work closely together."