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Ofqual should be ashamed of its report into the GCSE scandal

The GCSE grading report shames Ofqual. Not only has the watchdog failed miserably to investigate its own role in the fiasco the exercise leaves thousands of students still waiting for justice, says SecEd editor Pete Henshaw.

It was not the poor design of GCSE English that led to grade variations – it was plain and simply the decision by Ofqual and awarding bodies, in a climate of fierce political rhetoric about rising pass rates, to hike up the grade boundaries, thus unfairly disadvantaging thousands of students.

If teachers across the nation were involved in shameless over-marking as Ofqual claimed this week in its final report into the GCSE fiasco (see full article here), then why were there so many examples of awarding bodies (who let’s not forget externally moderate the controlled assessment) praising the schools affected for their grading?

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