Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, in following my noble friend Lord Lucas, I apologise at the outset for the length of notes that this large group of amendments brings. To allow thorough scrutiny of Ofqual, I will reinforce many of the points raised by my noble friend. Amendments 230 and 231 are designed to make explicit in the Bill Ofqual’s duty to maintain standards in the regulated qualifications. The Minister may argue that this duty is already implicit in the Bill and that there is therefore no need for the amendments. We suggest that they are necessary because they raise two key concerns. First, we are worried that there is a risk that Ofqual could be seen primarily as a PR agency designed to reassure people that standards are consistent or rising, without actually performing an active function to ensure that that is the case. Our worry stems from comments that come from Ofqual. Kathleen Tattersall, the chief executive of Ofqual, said: ""Ofqual has been set up … to ensure that there is better understanding of the issue and to assure public confidence"." We would accept that if assuring public confidence were a consequence of proper regulation and maintenance of standards rather than a primary objective in itself. Can the Minister reassure us that this will be the case? Secondly, the amendments draw attention to the difference in our approach to this body. As I understand it, the Government compare the actions of Ofqual to making sure that the height of a specific hurdle remains consistent between comparable qualifications and assessments. We, however, want to take action to improve standards. To be more specific, we would prefer there to be an explicit duty in terms of standards, which would mean not only that the height of the hurdle would be regulated but that there would be a robust examination system that would reject anything that would allow standards to fall. The hurdle should not be lowered. We want an examination system that is comparable to the best across the globe. That would mean that our learners were assessed by exams that would offer them the opportunity for a real rise in standards, not just a nice statistic that shows an increase in the number of passes in a devalued exam. This rigorous examination system would help more of our pupils who work so hard to leap over a hurdle that would put them on a par with the world’s best. We have therefore also tabled Amendment 236, which says that within eight months of being set up Ofqual must publish a report on whether standards of qualifications have been maintained over the past 15 years. This study must include A-levels and GCSEs. We feel that this is a necessary commitment. The Government have constantly told us that standards have risen, yet some of the world’s best academics point out that an increase in the number of passes does not mean that standards have risen if the result is just that the exams themselves are easier and the pass mark is lower. Does the Minister agree that, if part of Ofqual’s remit is to reassure people that standards are being regulated, a report of this nature would be useful? We believe that it is necessary because, as the Minister will be only too aware, we are concerned that standards have in fact been falling. We are worried that we are failing learners who need the right opportunities, the best teaching and exams that will allow them to demonstrate their learning to their fullest potential. In my honourable friend Michael Gove’s Haberdashers’ Aske’s lecture, he drew attention to Duncan Lawson from Coventry, who showed that students entering university in 2001 with a B at maths A-level displayed a level of knowledge that 10 years before would have been shown by a student with an N grade or a fail. Professor John Marks, who has been leading a study of GCSE and O-level papers, found that, ""it is now possible to achieve a Grade C in GCSE mathematics having almost no conceptual knowledge of mathematics"." He also discovered that, ""in 1990 the percentage mark on the Higher Tier for a Grade C was just over 50%. However, in 2000 and 2006 the required percentage mark for a C grade had fallen to about 20%: this mark could be ascertained by answering correctly the first four questions on Paper 5 and Paper 6"." These are appalling statistics. Does the Minister not see that it is important to create an examination system that not only regulates the standards of exams but helps to ensure that children are not failed by an examination system that no longer guarantees them academic excellence? For 16 year-olds, the expected minimum standard is five good passes at GCSE, including maths and English. This year, fewer than half of schoolchildren managed to clear that hurdle. We must ensure that standards are maintained at a consistent height between comparable assessments. This is an important concern. We also need to ensure that our assessments are not devalued. We want an examination system that does not allow a progressive decline in standards but upholds them; we need to regulate our exams so that they are comparable to the best in the world. We draw attention to the fact that in 2008 Ofqual, as one of its first intervening actions, forced AQA to lower the pass mark for its GCSE science paper to 20 per cent. AQA had refused to lower the mark because it considered that it would not be comparable with standards over time and would devalue the exam. Ofqual, however, demanded that AQA reduce the pass mark and thus the standard of this exam was lowered. The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, has tabled an amendment stating that Ofqual should be able to direct a specific body at a specific time regarding a specific qualification to set a particular standard. Noble Lords will all be aware that we would agree with the principle behind her provision, as long as Ofqual did not direct the body to lower standards. I very much look forward to the Minister’s response and I hope that she can offer some reassurances. On our Amendment 316, the Minister and the Committee will be aware that we have been calling for an independent regulator to monitor exam standards and ensure that they are maintained. When David Cameron was shadow Education Secretary, he stated: ""Reform of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is the one such positive step. It is not acceptable that the QCA, the guardian of our exams, is not independent of the Government"." We believe that the structure and design of Ofqual should be such that the body has powers to ensure that it can uphold strong and appropriate grade boundaries and thus help to guarantee that our exams and our pass marks are comparable to the best across the globe. At the moment, unfortunately, our qualifications system is struggling in a competitive international market. Standards are failing and we must take action to fix this situation. I am sure that the Minister is just as concerned about this as we are. This year, 40 per cent of children who left primary school failed to reach the accepted minimum standard for their age in reading, writing and mathematics. In the PISA studies on advanced economies and their educational performance, we dropped from fourth to 14th for science, seventh to 17th for literacy and eighth to 24th for mathematics. This is most dispiriting. One of the significant concerns that Michael Gove identified in his speech was: ""What looks like a great performance in our state-run exams turns out to be below par when compared internationally"." He raised his concerns about grade inflation, where our students are suffering because, he said: ""The qualifications we offer are no longer so robust"." Our worry here is that, while our students and teachers are putting in enormous amounts of hard graft and effort to pass exams, they are being failed by an exam system that cannot give them the freedom to compete in an international market. We have therefore asked Sir Richard Sykes, the former rector of Imperial College, to review the system of assessment and qualifications in this country. The main aim behind this is to ensure that our exams are internationally competitive again. It is of the utmost importance to secure these standards to make sure that our children are afforded the same opportunities as those from other countries and are stretched to their full potential. These amendments would add a further dimension to Ofqual. They would bring in an international benchmark to which exam standards should be fixed in order to ensure that they remain competitive. Amendment 226 would insert an international duty into Ofqual’s objectives. Amendment 232 expands on this to define the international objective as that included in the comparative study that would be brought in by Amendment 316. I hope that the Minister will consider these amendments in a favourable light, addressing both the principle of international benchmarking and the logistics of the amendments.