This week Ofqual announced it will look at whether greater use of technology in assessment and qualifications could deliver benefits for students and apprentices in the long term. Ofqual has said it will undertake research into a number of areas including, for example, remote invigilation.
We believe technology has the potential to deliver a range of benefits in the classroom and have already made some progress with digital assessment - with the multiplication tables check introduced as a digital statutory assessment for all pupils in year 4 in the current academic year.
The Secretary of State has also asked the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) – the body responsible for developing and delivering all statutory assessments for primary school pupils in England – to investigate what more we can do.
As set out in Schools White Paper, we plan to maintain our current system of recently reformed, world-class GCSEs and A levels. We also plan to work closely with Ofqual as they undertake this early exploratory work.
As the Secretary of State said in a speech at the BETT conference in March, “It’s possible that more digital assessment could bring significant benefits to students, teachers and schools and I want to start carefully considering the potential opportunities in this area.”