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

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assessment system are in good order. This would enable the professionals to
concentrate their attention on their central area of expertise.

Further positive signs can be detected in the 2005 White Paper (DfES 2005). The
series of changes signalled in this document involve consultations with awarding
bodies, pilots of revised qualifications and a gradual pace of change - all of which
suggest that lessons have been learned as a result of the crisis of autumn 2002.

Will the examining boards be redeemed from the level of outsourcing agencies to
which my research has consigned them? With each of the three examining boards
having appointed a new Chief Executive since 2003, with a new Chief Executive at
QCA in 206, and with the habitual short-term tenure of DfES officials and
government ministers, the slate of previous significant actors is being wiped clean. In
the words of one of them, ⁱⁱMuch depends on who the players are; personalities count
for a great deal in this dynamic situation” (EdexceM). In the interests of the young
people whose future is so significantly shaped by the qualifications they achieve, I
hope that this new group of “players” will proceed judiciously and take account of the
English examining boards’ undoubted strengths as they attempt to address the
system’s undoubted weaknesses.

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