“You can put down your pen, the exam won’t be on paper anymore”announces daily many times, In the United Kingdom, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations (Ofqual), the main assessment and regulatory body, published a three-year plan on Wednesday 4 May stating that it wants “To look for new approaches to student assessment, particularly with the use of new technologies”,

The country’s largest examination board, AQA, is about to launch a series of online exam experiments for GCSE And this a level, the UK equivalent of the Brevet des Colleges and Baccalaureate. The organization encourages the education sector to take advantage of it, citing the difficulty of organizing the printing, distribution, collection and correction of 12 million copies every year.

This twist will be especially beneficial for the customization of the examination calendar, for example as per the choices made by the students. This could end the great ritual of homework happening at the same time for millions of students across the country at the end of the school year. AQA also strikes the ecological cord, paper copies prompt CO emissions₂ and the amount of plastic waste.

A massive improvement?

according to this TimesMany principals welcome the project, describing the table-top exam system as “hopelessly archaic”. “Our reliance on an industrial-scale, paper-and-pencil examination system with Fort Knox-esque security features for transporting and storing documents is completely outdated, and it is high time for reforms in this area”According to the General Secretary of Association of Schools and Principals (ASCL).

While Kovid-19 canceled exams for two consecutive years, GCSE And a level To be held this month. According to the evidence gathered by the title, education in the United Kingdom was not prepared for such upheaval. This first step towards digital could lead to a comprehensive reform of assessment, which is said to be part of the learning body. “Obviously, that prevents today from having representative and valid notes. GCSE and at a levelthe fact that we believe that any evaluation […] should give rise to a test, unless exempted”The head of a teachers union explains.

“Yet there are already many concrete examples of qualifying courses in England that are not limited by this assumption and which manage to yield valid and completely correct results using various assessment methods.”