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

184

GNVQs. Once again the longstanding tradition of regarding work-based qualifications
as outside the province of education had prevailed. Disappointment with this stance
was articulated strongly by the one-time ChiefExecutive of RSA Examinations:

Iwould be a strong supporter of eliminating artificial barriers between types of
qualifications. But they may even have created a still starker barrier because it
was only about GNVQs. NVQs and other vocational qualifications were
explicitly excluded from the proposals. It...led to something that I personally
deplore, and that’s a stark divide between school qualifications and
qualifications for post-compulsory [sic] rather than a system that would allow
credits and so on, but that was prevented.

(OCRl 2000)

Once again the English tradition of regarding work-based qualifications as outside the
province of education had prevailed. Instead, like the Dearing Report in reference to
NVQs, the document made rather vague exhortations to “rationalise... the sectoral
training and other improvements which “are likely to be carried forward with the
creation of the QCA” (DfEE 1997a).

This reservation apart, it seemed clear that merging the awarding bodies was
generally seen as a positive step. The awarding bodies themselves, in a united
response from ‘The Joint Forum for the GCSE and GCE’ and the ‘Joint Council of
National Vocational Awarding Bodies’, broadly accepted the Dearing vision and the
concept of a national qualifications framework, but sounded a warning note.

Observing that although the consultation paper suggested the benefits of reducing the

number of Boards, it overlooked other outcomes that might be less positive:

An imposed reduction in the number of boards:

is no guarantee of improved standards;

will reduce the possibilities for, or prevent, a dissatisfied centre from seeking
better service elsewhere;

is likely to be at the expense of the guiding principles [ownership,
responsiveness, innovation, motivation, continuity] set out above;

could create new and unwelcome barriers between GCSE, A levels, GNVQs and
vocational qualifications such as NVQs;

will be costly and time consuming;

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