12. Mr O complaints that the grade boundaries for his Animal Management exams in March 2023 were unfairly raised to pre-pandemic levels.
13. He feels that his education was significantly affected by the pandemic and that the grade boundaries for his exam should have taken this into account.
14. We do not doubt how hard Mr O worked towards his exams in Animal Management and are sorry to hear that he has not passed these exams yet.
15. Before we decide if we should conduct a detailed investigation of a complaint, we look at whether there are signs the organisation has got something wrong. We do this by comparing what should have happened with what did happen. We have done this and have not found any indications that Ofqual has done anything wrong.
16. To put this complaint, and our decision, into context. It may be helpful if we provide some background on Ofqual’s role in setting grade boundaries, together with its role in challenges to grades awarded.
17. Ofqual are not responsible for setting grade boundaries. That responsibility falls to each of the individual examination boards who use senior examiners who are experts in their subject. Ofqual’s role is this process is to ensure, that examination boards are setting the grade boundaries in a reasonable manner.
18. Ofqual are also not responsible for deciding on individual gradings. Again, this falls to the individual examination boards to determine for themselves. Ofqual’s role is to ensure that, overall, the grades are set fairly. It also has a role in ensuring that the examination boards have robust mechanisms in place by which someone may be able to challenge the grade or mark they have been awarded.
19. Ofqual acknowledge that although exam boards endeavour to set exam papers at the same level of difficulty each year, there will naturally be small variations in the level of challenge on the papers. As a result, grade boundaries change each year to reflect any differences in the demand of the question papers.
20. In addition, at the time of these events, Ofqual was aware of the disruption caused to education by the coronavirus pandemic. Ofqual noted that, in summer 2020, the government decided that exams could not take place safely. As the pandemic continued it disrupted education to such an extent, and so unevenly, that the government decided it would have been unfair to ask students to sit exams as they normally would in summer 2021, given the differences in the amount of the curriculum that different schools and colleges had been able to teach.
21. Ofqual agreed that using grades assessed by teachers and checked by centres was the right thing to do in the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic. It meant students could receive grades and move on with their lives, and their grades took account of the disruption caused by the pandemic.
22. However, Ofqual recognised this was a temporary measure and always envisaged grading (and grade boundaries) returning to pre-pandemic levels (albeit not in one go).
23. All of this meant that an examination score that was enough to achieve a grade in one year would not be, and never would have been, automatically sufficient to achieve the same grade in a different year.
24. In its response to this complaint, Ofgem confirmed that it does not set grade boundaries. It said that the same grade boundaries apply to everyone taking a particular qualification in a particular year. It explained that grade boundaries can and do change each exam series to reflect differences in the difficulty of the assessments.
25. Ofqual said the grade boundary for Mr O’s exams were set by the exam provider and it cannot intervene and ask for it to be changed based on his concerns. All of this in is line with Ofqual’s role as we have explained earlier.
26. Our Principles of Good Administration – being open and accountable – states that public bodies should be open and truthful when accounting for their decisions and actions. They should state their criteria for decision making and give reasons for their decisions.
27. Ofqual has explained its position that it does not set grade boundaries and cannot intervene in the pass mark for Mr O’s exams in Animal Management. This explanation is in line with Our Principles of Good Administration.
28. We have therefore seen no indication that Ofqual has done anything wrong in relation to the issue Mr O has raised.
29. We appreciate that our decision will be disappointing for Mr O but hope that our impartial look at Ofqual’s explanations is of some use to him.