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

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restructured organisations was showing - privately or publicly - unmistakable
structural cracks. These incidents, although individually insignificant, must be
considered in the light of the long history of the Boards’ previously successful
operation. The atmosphere was charged by an early tremor from Scotland, where a
newly merged Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) in summer 2000 produced
either late results or none at all for 17 000 students sitting the reformed Scottish
Higher examinations. In September 2000 the Scottish Executive commissioned
Deloitte & Touche to investigate the problems at SQA. The resulting report concluded
that, together with some general weaknesses in management, the organisational
structure had been:

...neither effective nor efficient in the new circumstances, and proved
insufficiently robust when faced with the challenging logistics of new
qualifications and a major IT systems implementation.

(Deloitte&Touche 2000)

Resignations of both the Chief Executive and Chair of SQA were necessary to quell
that particular storm. Despite the Deloitte Touche report’s highlighting of weaknesses
in the compatibility of the computer systems following the merger of the academic
and vocational assessment bodies, there was no indication that QCA foresaw similar
problems resulting from similar mergers in England. Yet the size of the two Scottish
agencies and the numbers of candidates involved in Scotland were dwarfed by their
counterparts in England. Nevertheless, it seemed only the awarding bodies who
viewed the Scottish crisis with any misgivings about a similar event south of the
border.¹⁰

As the unitary awarding bodies took shape, opinions were also forming about these
new constellations. Anecdotal evidence was rife. OCR was acquiring a reputation
with teachers and examinations officers for serious gaps in communication between

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