Tory plan to tighten exam standards

The Conservatives are setting out plans for legislation to "reverse the devaluation of exams".

Shadow schools secretary Michael Gove will use a speech on Tuesday evening to unveil Tory plan to give England's qualifications watchdog Ofqual a statutory duty to improve exam standards and pass marks.

He will also suggest fixing exams to an international benchmark to ensure they are "internationally competitive".

His comments come after Ofqual asked the AQA exam board to lower the mark needed for a GCSE science grade C to bring it in line with the other bodies.

And Gove will tell the Haberdashers Foundation: "Ofqual's first significant intervention in the examination system has not been an injection of greater rigour, an upholding of standards or a defence of knowledge. But the precise opposite.

"Ofqual's debut performance in the examination arena was a bullying of one exam board - AQA - which led to a deliberate lowering of standards."

He will accuse Ofqual of accepting the "lowest common denominator" and allowing standards to slip.

"In other words, Ofqual devalued the exam. It performed a function which was the precise opposite of its founding mission," Gove will say.

"I regard it as simply unacceptable that the exam standards watchdog should be acting in this way. And a future Conservative government would legislate to ensure this simply couldn't happen.

"Ofqual would be given the powers to uphold and defend robust grade boundaries and Conservative ministers would require Ofqual to use those powers to guarantee that our exams and our pass marks were comparable with the world's best."

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "We have an internationally renowned curriculum, assessment and qualifications system, and we shouldn't pretend otherwise.

"Ofqual will be given all the powers it needs in the forthcoming bill to continue to secure the standards of qualifications, tests and assessments."

An Ofqual spokesman said the board had "acted to ensure that learners could be confident that the standards applied to them were carefully checked and their grades truly reflect their attainment".

"Ofqual is confident that standards across GCSEs and A-levels have been maintained this year," he added. "All awarding bodies applied thorough processes when awarding grades."