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Decisions about what they were allowed to offer were being taken with no regard to
previous patterns of choice by teachers. They were now in the position of ‘licensed
traders’ whose products could be offered only with the imprimatur of QCA, who were
running a strictly controlled market.
QCA’s Leadership Problems
At the most critical period in its brief existence, QCA experienced major changes at
the top which were to affect the way it dealt with the problems resulting from the new
qualification structure. First, in summer 2000 the founding Chief Executive, Dr
Nicholas Tate, resigned to become Head of Winchester School. After the events of
September 2002, Tate was quoted as telling the Headmasters’ Conference that:
As early as 1996, we were worried about how we were going to get the grading
right. Ifwe had been more open about the fact that grades were likely to go up,
there would have been less concern when they did.
(The Daily Telegraph 2 October 2002: 1)
This was something of an understatement. His successor was Professor David
Hargreaves, who took the helm as Curriculum 2000 was launched in September 2000.
In the first year of the new structure, head teachers complained about the problems
they faced in running so many additional examinations, students criticised the
timetabling which meant some had to sit multiple papers in a single day, and teachers
felt they were rushing to complete modules. These ‘teething problems’ were
investigated by Professor Hargreaves, who produced a rather anodyne report,
suggested improvements to the examining timetable then promptly resigned his post.
He too, in hindsight, confessed to the Headmasters’ Conference that iThere was a time
when he was responsible for the new exam that he thought the best course would be
‘to pull the whole thing apart''' (The Daily Telegraph 2 October: 1) The heads were
reported as noting that neither Dr Tate nor Professor Hargreaves seemed to accept any