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from the Euston road to QCA in Piccadilly - expressed some reservations about all
these mergers and reflected on the possible effects:
These are not simple transformations. These organizations have different
cultures and curriculum principles: it is in this process of transformation of
apparatus that particular views about assessment and learning, coherence and
diversity will be in strong competition. In matters of assessment the details
count. The details will emerge from the mergers, the discussions on the
characteristics of A∕AS, GNVQs and NVQs and the outcomes of pilots of new
approaches. That is why precise predictions are extremely hard to make. One
new form of consensus is arising in the discussions on assessment across the
system and that is that three factors are dominant: rigour, cost and
manageability. One feature shines through - increased central control through
qualifications.
(Oates 1997: 146)
However, Ron Dearing was intent upon the need “to make explicit the equal standing
of academic, applied and vocational qualifications....” (Dearing 1996: 12). His
background as a successful non-academic who had made his reputation within the
Post Office lent credibility to his commitment to abolishing the ‘binary line’ that had
always divided the academic from the vocational. He recalled the rationale for his
recommendations clearly when interviewed:
I believed there would be substantial benefits from the bringing together of the
long experience that SCAA represented with the new approaches NCVQ had
introduced such as departing from written assessment as the only reliable
measure. There is a need for people to be able to talk about how to do things -
both in the workplace and in fact anywhere.
(Dearing 2003)
His recommendation of the merging of the regulatory bodies - SCAA and NCVQ -
was tested, as had now become standard practice, through quick soundings taken by
means of a DfEE consultation entitled Building the Framework. The merger took
place in 1997. However, as seems usually the case when organisations merge, the
entity that emerged in new premises at 83 Piccadilly was not simply a sum of its
constituent parts. The new body, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA),
was perceived by many observers to be dominated by officials from SCAA. This view