Pupils awarded top marks in GCSE English exams for correctly spelling obscenities

A cheif examiner revealed that students can be awarded marks for writing obscenities in their GCSE papers, fuelling fears of dumbing down.

Peter Buckroyd, of the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, said that one pupil who wrote 'f*** off' as an answer in an English paper was not penalised.

Instead, the student was given two points for spelling the expletive correctly and conveying a meaning.

He had written it in response to the instruction: 'Describe the room you're sitting in'.

Education experts claim the marking makes a mockery of the exam system.

Mr Buckroyd did, however, acknowledge that the language was inappropriate. He said he gave the pupil two marks out of a possible 27 in the 2006 GCSE exam.

'It would be wicked to give it zero because it does show some very basic skills we are looking for - like conveying some meaning and some spelling,' he said.

'It's better than someone who doesn't write anything. It shows more skills than somebody leaving the page blank.

'If it had an exclamation mark, it would have got more because it would have been showing a little bit of skill.'

Mr Buckroyd said he used the example to teach other examiners about the finer points of marking.

He is also said to have told trainee examiners they should stick to the marking scheme and should award points to pupils who only write obscenities on exam papers. 

Conservative schools spokesman Nick Gibb said: 'This is worse than dumbing down because it's applying a mechanical approach to marking an academic paper when you need to apply intelligence and common sense.

'In the name of consistency they have taken this template marking approach to exams to absurd lengths. It's not what's wanted by the public.'

Nick Seaton, of the Campaign for Real Education, added: 'It's disgracefully inappropriate language and any youngster writing such an expletive in an exam shouldn't get any marks.

'No teacher or examiner should face that sort of abuse. It clearly shows the exam boards don't understand right and wrong. Our exam system is losing all credibility.'

Yesterday, the AQA said it did not condone the use of obscenities. A spokesman said: 'The example was unique in the experience of the senior examiner. It was used to emphasise the importance of adhering to the mark scheme.'