Yahoo News Exam boards launch GCSE 'double entry' investigation amid claims that schools are breaking rules
Exam boards have launched a GCSE “double entry” investigation amid claims that schools are breaking the rules to boost their league table position.
Hundreds of students were entered for Maths GCSE with more than one exam board in 2016, figures from the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofqual, the exam regulator.
The practise is banned, but schools but there is concern that schools are attempting to increase their standing in league tables by giving pupils two attempts at the Maths GCSE and then submitting the best mark.
More than 50 schools “double entered” pupils for Maths GCSE in summer 2016, according to data obtained under freedom of information laws by the Times Education Supplement (TES).
Separate data, obtained by maths teacher Mel Muldowney from Ofqual, revealed that 172 centres – including settings other than schools – entered students twice for maths GCSE, sometimes in different tiers.
“Double entry is going on,” Ms Muldowney, a maths teacher at Alcester Academy in Warwickshire, told TES. “I can understand why – the pressure of accountability and desire to want to get the best result for students.”
The DfE uses a system of discounting to ensure that where a pupil has taken two subjects that have an overlap in curriculum, the performance tables only give credit for one.
Double entry is going on. I can understand why – the pressure of accountability and desire to want to get the best result for students
Mel Muldowney, maths teacher at Alcester Academy
The performance table rules were changed in 2013, so that only the first qualification taken in any subject was counted in the tables, but if qualifications are taken on the same day, then the best result is used.
The discounting guidance states: "However, schools should not vary the published starting time for an examination if there is a clash between papers of different awarding bodies or specifications in the same subject."
A spokesman for JCQ said: "The awarding organisations will carry out an investigation into any possible GCSE double entry by centres in the summer season 2016.
"Malpractice remains rare and cases are usually identified through the rigorous JCQ Inspection Service visits, whistleblowers and data analysis.”
“The small number of potential GCSE double entries that have come to light are being reviewed carefully and JCQ will continue to monitor this in the future."
