The Tory plans to publish past exam papers has obviously ruffled the feathers of the government, who, in their ever greater desire for transparency, have so far refused to offer them for public scrutiny.
According to this morning’s BBC report, Michael Gove says: “Now the government treats exam papers like state secrets and refuses to publish them.
“This is wrong and a Conservative government will create a free online library of all exam papers and scripts so there is full transparency and academic scrutiny of our exam system.”
Implementing Gove’s proposals would be an excellent step forward, though to make sense of comparisons we would need to have more information, such as where grade boundaries lie and how they are decided and how marking schemes are arrived at. Looking at a broad sample of students’ answers would also need to be incorporated into such a plan.
Bring it on!