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Plans for digital exams should be treated with “extreme caution”, the head of England’s exams regulator has said.
Sir Ian Bauckham, chief regulator at Ofqual, suggested a number of state schools have “weak” wifi systems, connectivity and security because of a lack of investment in the estate.
There are fears that all schools won’t be able to run assessments fairly.
The Ofqual chief said there were “endless cautionary” stories of countries that have pushed ahead with the digitisation of national exams.
His comments come after three of the major exam boards in England have laid out their proposals to introduce on-screen assessments, which are subject to regulatory approval by Ofqual.
Sir Ian told the PA news agency: “Until we’re at the point where we can be assured that all schools are able to offer a digital approach to assessment which is going to be fair for everybody, regardless of the kind of teaching they’ve had, or the kind of school they’re in, or the kind of facilities they have accessible to them, then we’re going to have to exercise extreme caution in rolling out large-scale digitisation.
“Of course, I’m not saying never. There may well be a day when there is much more digitisation in exams and assessment than there is now, but we will need to go at a pace that gives us assurance that this is fair for everybody and is also actually implementable for everybody.”
In January, Pearson, which runs exam board Edexcel, announced plans to offer pupils a choice to sit on-screen GCSE English exams from summer 2025.
In December last year, exam board OCR said it would offer a digitally-assessed GCSE in computer science for pupils starting their course in 2025.
Last year, exam board AQA set out plans to roll out on-screen exams and it hoped that students would be able to sit digital exams for at least one major subject by 2030.
AQA said the reading and listening components of GCSE Italian and Polish would be the first to move to digital exams in 2026 under the proposals.
But now the exam board has confirmed it will not be proceeding with the original timetable as the plans have not yet received regulatory approval.
When asked about the move towards online exams, Sir Ian told PA: “We’ve got a school estate that may have been underinvested in over the years.
“We’ve got schools that have weak connectivity, weak wifi systems, weak system security, weak system resilience.
“Until we can be certain that everybody can run digital exams fairly, and deliver them without disruption, we will have to move with great caution.”
He added: “If you look around the world there are endless cautionary stories of countries that have tried to be the first off the block here and implement digitisation in national high-stakes exams and qualifications.
“And when systems fall over, either at a national level or a school level, the people who lose out are the students taking those exams, and inevitably the most fragile students taking exams are the least advantaged.
“So we’ve got to be assured it will work effectively and fairly for everybody before we move ahead at scale.”
James Bowen, assistant general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “There is a sense of inevitability about the greater use of technology in exams and there are likely to be some benefits too.
“However, it is essential that we tread very carefully and think through all the challenges before diving in head-first.
“For example, we would need to ensure that all schools have the capacity and tools to access the exams and that no student is put at a disadvantage as a result of a new approach.
“Evolution rather than revolution feels the right approach to take here.”
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “There is enormous potential in moving to more online assessment in the future.
“It would mean we would no longer need to ferry millions of exam papers and scripts around the country under Fort Knox-style security arrangements.
“It would reduce the reliance on handwriting in a world which overwhelmingly uses keyboards, and it would make marking a lot more straightforward because examiners would not have to decipher handwritten scripts.
“However, Sir Ian is right to point out the potential pitfalls as we first need to make sure that all schools and colleges have equal access to devices and systems necessary for digital assessment in order to ensure that exams are fair.
“The problem is previous governments simply did not invest sufficiently in education technology and left it to develop in a piecemeal fashion.
“What we now need is a national strategy which unlocks the transformative potential of this technology, while being alert to any unintended consequences.”
An AQA spokesman said: “We remain committed to digital exams through evolution, not revolution. We have worked and will continue to work closely with schools, colleges and the regulator.
“In time, digital exams will allow young people to use their digital skills and will better reflect the world they are growing up in.
“We made it clear that our plans were subject to regulatory approval. Since our plans are still with the regulator we will not be proceeding in line with the timetable we set out last year. Instead we are reviewing timelines, making sure that we are ready to press ahead once we receive regulatory approval.”
