The number of students passing GCSEs has fallen this year, fuelling the debate over the exam's future.

Some independent schools are allowing pupils to skip GCSEs - and the exams watchdog Ken Boston says this could help to reduce the burden on students.

Dr Boston became head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority last autumn, amid controversy over A-level grades.

He has been critical of the number of exams British pupils face, and the way in which those exams are marked.

Dr Boston has recommended making greater use of marking centres and digitised exam scripts, which can be marked on computer and do not have to be sent through the post.

Will there be a shake-up of the exam system? Is there greater confidence in exam grades this year? What still needs to be done?

Transcript

Newshost:
Hello and welcome to this BBC Interactive forum. I'm Jane Francis Kelly. Over the past couple of weeks, thousands of pupils have received the dreaded envelope containing their exam results. Once again there has been a record pass rate in the A-levels but there was a slight drop in the number of pupils passing their GCSEs.

As ever, the results season has sparked speculation over the quality of Britain's exam system and the future of those exams. So what's the real story? Well here to answer your questions is Dr Ken Boston, head of the exam watchdog, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

Welcome Dr Boston. We'll start off with the first question from James in London who asks: Why should anyone care about GCSEs or A-levels any more? The currency has been totally debased.

Dr Ken Boston:
Well I don't agree with that. These are world-class qualifications. They have an international standing and anyone who completes an A-level and does it well has a really solid foundation for a university career and for life.

The same with the GCSE. For a 16 year-old, it's a comprehensive, broad examination which really tests them and which has, as I say, an international reputation. So I don't agree with James.

Newshost:
Mary Jane, Liverpool asks: If the Government are encouraging more people to sit exams, then it stands to reason that the "extra" candidatures are less likely to pass. Is the increasing fail rate really a surprise?

Dr Ken Boston:
I don't think the Government is trying to encourage people to sit exams, I think its trying to encourage them to stay on in education and that's a very important thing to do. At the moment of course, of the 600,000 who take GCSE, only 250,000 go on to A-levels - so it's a big drop out there and that is of concern. So I am sure that Government would want young people to stay on in education, not to take exams but to learn and do better.

Newshost:
Peter Jones, Hull asks: Do you think that the current decline in GCSE results will have a knock on effect in the ever improving A-level results?

Dr Ken Boston:
When you say decline, figures will go up and down around the mean - educational change and growth is a long-term thing. You look for interim, incremental improvement and sometimes it goes up a bit and sometimes it goes down a bit. I think that the young people who have just done GCSE can look forward with great confidence to their careers in A-level.

Newshost:
Jack Higgs, Birmingham asks: Having just received my results for my GCSEs I have a question. Why are different exam boards testing pupils at different levels? For example, I found that a Maths AQA paper is considerably harder than an OCR Maths paper. Why aren't standards the same?

Dr Ken Boston:
Well standards are the same and I could not agree that that's the case. There may have been questions on that that he was more comfortable with than others because he'd prepared in that area. But the job of the QCA is to make sure that standards between awarding bodies are identical and that's achieved on the basis of knowledge and information and professional understanding of standards going back many, many years. I can assure everyone that whatever exam board you go to you will get examinations of a similar standard.

Newshost:
I've got two questions for you here. The first is from Shirley Riley, Manchester who asks: My son got his results today but they were not what his teachers predicted. He was devastated, and we'd like to know if we can have them checked - or can we apply to have the papers to see where or where he did not get marks?

This is in conjunction with a question from Sue Grainger, Nottingham who asks: My daughter is very disappointed with her results and thinks she has been marked unfairly. How do I complain or get anything else done?

Dr Ken Boston:
The awarding bodies will undertake for both young people at their request, or the request of their schools, a clerical check to see that the marks have been added up correctly or a remarking of the paper to see whether for some reason it hadn't been given fair measure. Those requests should be in by the 20th September, directly to the awarding body and that work will then be done.

Newshost:
Is there a fee for that though?

Dr Ken Boston:
There is a fee and it varies from one body to another. But it's not a prohibitive fee, but yes there is a cost.

Newshost:
Natalie Dorey, Portsmouth, Hampshire asks: Rather than criticising the results, shouldn't the Government realise that falling achievement could be due to the stress of constant examinations?

Dr Ken Boston:
Well again, I'm not a spokesman for the Government, but I don't think the Government did criticise the results. In fact I saw the Minister and the Secretary of State congratulating students on their results.

The issue of the pressure of examinations is something that really is on the agenda. The Government has asked Mike Tomlinson in his review of 14 - 19 education, to look at the total assessment load and see whether we could get as accurate a view of the performance of young people in school without exactly the same burden of assessment as they have now. The Tomlinson working group will be looking at that and in due course there might be some change to the examination system which might lead to a lighter load.

Newshost:
Saleh Ahmed, London asks: What is going to be done about AS/A2 exams all being scheduled for the same day? Many of us students are tired mentally and physically after the exams

Dr Ken Boston:
Yes, this has been an interesting question because only a couple of years ago, the decision was made to put on the one day because it was found that the examination timetable had expanded so much that more time was being spent on examining that could have been spent on teaching and learning and preparation. But as Mike Tomlinson has found, there are some concerns by some people that it is a bit heavy to do all your AS exams on one day in one subject and that's something that we will be looking at with the awarding bodies for the timetable for future years.

Newshost:
Well it's been suggested, certainly by some independent schools, that they would like to skip GCSEs entirely and go straight to A-levels. What do you think about that?

Dr Ken Boston:
I think that would be unfortunate. I think that the GCSE is a very important examination. It's an examination at the end of compulsory schooling at age 16. It's an examination that is broad that tests a range of subjects, some of which are compulsory, rather than a more limited range of subjects as you had in A-levels. It's valued by employers and I think it's very good discipline to go through preparing for further examinations later on. So although it is a possibility - it's not a statutory test - I think it would be unwise to move away from GCSE at the moment. In due course, the Tomlinson inquiry might redesign the whole of the assessment at years 11, 12 and 13. But just dropping one part of it I don't think would be an intelligent thing to do.

Newshost:
Ralph Allison, Gillingham, Kent asks: If a school decided to drop GCSEs, what would students do instead?

Dr Ken Boston:
I presume they'd well go on to A/S and A-level but of course if they didn't complete that they would have no certificate at all and for that reason, amongst others, the GCSE is a very good qualification to hold.

Newshost:
Keith Bailey, UK asks: What happens if pupils who bypass their GCSEs fail to their A-levels? Surely this will leave children without qualifications?

Dr Ken Boston:
It would, he's right and that's an important consideration.

Newshost:
Chris B, Manchester: Could we eventually see pupils leaving school with no qualifications at all if we go down a one system route?

There are more pupils who are leaving school without qualifications - there's been an increase of about 2%.

Dr Ken Boston:
Yes and that is of real concern and certainly everyone involved in education would want to see that corrected.

Newshost:
Mark, London: Does Dr Boston think the government's constant meddling with the education system has left pupils at a disadvantage?

Dr Ken Boston:
Well I don't know that I'd agree with the term constant meddling. I think that governments have a responsibility to make sure that the education which is delivered is of very top quality and things like a literacy strategy or a numeracy strategy are not meddling. They're key interventions to try to improve outcomes and I think with the Key Stage 3 results this year, we've seen the benefit of that. So I would be certainly in favour of Government support. The other side of the issue is that, to take up a previous question, I think probably we could get by with a lighter examination load overall.

Newshost:
Guy, Buckingham asks: Is it feasible that this country will introduce a Baccalaureate in place of the A Level?

Dr Ken Boston:
It's perfectly feasible and that's one thing that the Tomlinson group is looking at. There are various designs and shapes the baccalaureate might take. The objective would be to be an overarching qualification that covered a broad range of subjects, both academic and vocational and dealt with both breadth and depth. Certainly that's on the agenda but none of us would want to see the A-level or the GCSE go until we were certain we had an even better qualification in the form of a baccalaureate and we'll all be very interested to see what work comes out of that.

Newshost:
Rick Hough, Manchester asks: British kids face too many exams and lack the vocational skills British industry is crying out for. Discuss.

Dr Ken Boston:
Well, if I were discussing that as an essay, I would qualify the first bit slightly as I've said before, but on the issue of vocational qualifications, absolutely and that's a very important role of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. We're not just about A-levels and about examinations at school, we're actually concerned with qualifications to skill the nation across industry, employment etc. It seems to me very, very important that vocational qualifications and vocational education becomes much more mainstream within the school system to prevent this large drop-out we've got at the moment - certainly one that's too large - and also to prepare people for the world of work and to build the human capital, if you like, of this nation.

Newshost:
Simon, Bristol asks: What an A level shows today is how well a person has learned their subject, not how talented they are. What are you going to do to fix this problem?

Dr Ken Boston:
Well it certainly shows that they've prepared well. But these A-levels are very demanding and very, very challenging. Only 1 in 20, 18 year-olds actually gets and A grade; only 1 in 4, 18 year-olds actually gets a grade between A and E. We are dealing here with a very small number of young people who've achieved well. From my knowledge of other education systems, I can tell you quite firmly that an A grade here in an A-level is the equivalent of performance at first year university in many other countries of this world - the standing is very, very high.

Newshost:
Greg, UK asks: With the current trend of changing the exam system every year, there is no consistency in qualifications, gradings etc. I have no idea what my A levels from 1993 would equate to (if anything)

Dr Ken Boston:
They don't change from year to year. The A-level has been here for 50 years. There've been some modifications to it, the most recent one, Curriculum 2000, and subjects of course do change in their content from year to year. Take a physics paper today - since the development of the transistor, the physics papers are very heavily around electronic digital technology. Twenty years ago, that would not have been on the physics paper - you can't compare the two papers. You need to compare the standard in terms of what that paper at that time and this paper at this time demands of an intelligent, hard-working 18 year-old. That's broadly how one establishes what the standard might be even though content will change from time to time.

Newshost:
Colin Hodgson, Grimsby asks: My son has just received his results. In tourism and leisure he had 4 papers to sit and in the first 3 achieved B grade. At his final exam he was given the wrong paper (the 'lower' rather than the 'higher' paper) but the adjudicator insisted that it was the right one. So, he took the paper in front of him and has ended up with a U for the subject. What can be done to rectify this and give him the chance to attain the B grade which his efforts deserve?

Dr Ken Boston:
He should contact immediately the awarding body in writing and he should contact the QCA, sending a copy of what he's sent to the awarding body. If there has been a problem there clearly it will need to be rectified.

Newshost:
Do you think the exam boards have cleaned up their act?

Dr Ken Boston:
The exam boards are very, very professional bodies. It wasn't a matter of them cleaning up their act, it was a matter of revisions to the code of the practice which govern the relations between the awarding bodies and the QCA and there were some problems there that Mike Tomlinson identified. You also need to understand that the whole logistics of this operation - the demands upon awarding bodies - are huge. Twenty five million scripts moving around the country by mail, for example, is the dimension we're dealing with; sixty thousand examiners that the awarding bodies are dealing with; thousands and thousands of inquiries. The awarding bodies are under strain and although we've got through this examination period very, very well, all of us need to be looking at some changes in logistics in future years to make that delivery even more assured.

Newshost:
Well I'm afraid that's all we have time for. My thanks to Dr Ken Boston and to all of you who've sent in your questions. Goodbye.

Due to an overwhelming response, the QCA have taken time to answer some more of your questions. See the responses below:

Question: "My daughter has been given a B* in her English Tier H exam. What does this mean?"
Sue Cawson, Ashton Under Lyne Lancashire

Answer: This sounds like an error! A* is a grade but the other grades don't include a *. English has two tiers with the higher targeted at A*-D.

The reason for this is that tiering provides pupils with the opportunity to show what they know, understand and can do, by presenting them with question papers that are targeted at a particular band of attainment.

Tiering provides pupils with the best possible opportunity to perform to the best of their potential. For example, it would be difficult to find unseen reading material for a written examination that is suitable for Grade G pupils, that would also stretch grade A* pupils.

Question: "My daughter is taking her GCSEs at the British School of Lanzarote next year. However, I can't find any information on the performance of overseas schools following the British curriculum. How can I find out what the results were this year?
Steve Boyd, Lanzarote, Spain

Answer: The QCA does not have responsibility for International GCSEs. However, the following is an extract from British School of Lanzarote's website:

"All pupils at the school participate in standardised test and assessments based on the UK curriculum. At the end of Years 2, 6 and 9 pupils take end of Key Stage tests to measure their individual progress. After Year 9 pupils can embark on two-year course of study in a variety of subjects. This enables them to sit the Cambridge Examination Board IGCSE examinations in Year 11"

Statistics showing the global picture for centres taking the Cambridge International Examinations IGCSE are available on the CIE website

You can also call Cambridge International Examinations; Tel: 01223 553 554.

They could be compared to the British School of Lanzarote's IGCSE results this year.

Question: "My daughter has C in her English speaking & listening exam. Is this an overall GCSE result or is the (D) grade in brackets the overall grade. Does the C count?"
Rose, London

Answer:In GCSE English one part of the coursework covers the skills of speaking & listening.

The results slip your daughter received this week will show her overall result for English but may also show how she performed in speaking & listening. The overall grade is more important.

The English grade is reported as, for example, English higher tier grade B; then along side or below this will be the speaking and listening grade.