The English Examining Boards: Their route from independence to government outsourcing agencies

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insights into the widespread perceptions that prevailed at a time when, as in an large-
scale decision-making process, perceptions are often the deciding factor.

Certainly my experience supports the view that firstly the introduction of GCSE and
later the move toward competition between 11-18 schools and 6^th-form or FE colleges
substantially altered the way teachers made decisions about post-16 qualifications
providers. No longer could established connections be taken for granted. In the
absence of objective information in this instantly-created qualifications market, these
decisions were being made on the basis of hearsay. Therefore what was being said is
relevant in building a full picture of market-related pressures on the boards.

Although the examining boards had effectively operated competitively since their
inception, in practice they had tended to serve particular client groups. Having been
first created by universities to administer their own selection process, since the advent
of national School Certificates, any Board could in theory be chosen by any school. In
practice schools tended to stay with the one with which they felt at least a tenuous
connection.

With the post-war introduction of GCE examinations and the significant growth in
candidate numbers, the informal configuration of core ‘clients’ solidified into the
following pattern:

• the public schools continued to use the Oxford & Cambridge Joint Board
which had been set up to serve them;

• other private schools used either the Oxford Delegacy or the Cambridge
Syndicate;

southern grammar schools used the London Board;

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