Exams 'undermined by meddling ministers', says Oxbridge exams chief

Ministers have put standards at risk by constantly meddling in A-levels and GCSEs, an exam board chief has said.

Greg Watson warned that Labour interference in public exams had undermined their credibility and damaged public confidence in standards.

Mr Watson, head of the OCR exam board, delivered his broadside just weeks before A-level and GCSE results are posted in schools across the country.

In an interview, he attacked the 'politicisation' of the exam system and said it had gathered pace since 1997.

'The big impact is that the public is not sure any more,' he said. 'There's too much change, too often.

'The more often you change the system and the structures and the balances and the number of units, and the range of grades awarded, the harder it is to look at any year and compare it directly to one year, five years, ten years, 50 years previously.

'The reason why the public is uncertain is because every change creates a doubt about whether the standards are being moved.' Mr Watson, whose exam board is an arm of Cambridge University, revealed the Government had ordered the use of calculators in and out of exams seven times in the past decade. Coursework had been introduced across GCSEs but was now being removed again.

Meanwhile ministers insisted they must approve a decision over where to set the grade boundary for the new A-star grade at A-level. And new secondary school diplomas were 'complicated' qualifications because ministers had been so closely involved.

He added: 'A-level has had this politicisation around it, which has made it a bit unstable. People are a little bit uncertain about how much confidence they can have in A-levels.'

Schools Minister Jim Knight said it was 'simply incorrect' to say ministers meddled in exams, tests or the national curriculum. 'We have one of the most tightly regulated systems in the world,' he added.