Education Quandary
'Is it true that computers will soon be marking all exams? How can they be as accurate as people?'
By Hilary Wilce
Published: 22 February 2007
Hilary's advice
It is true that things are going in that direction. This spring sees Edexcel, the country's second largest board, trialling a computer system to mark GCSE essays. It will only use dummy papers at first, so none of this year's GCSE candidates needs to fear being robo-guinea pigs, but future candidates probably need to start getting their minds in gear for computerised assessment.
The system has been used in parts of America, and supporters claim it marks essays accurately for style, spelling, content and vocabulary. It does this by using a database of textbook materials and several hundred tests to recognise the standard of answers.
But to mark an essay properly, you have to look at the complex interplay of how well a candidate uses language and resources to develop a good argument. A computer can probably recognise mainstream answers with reasonable accuracy, but what about candidates who choose to think and write out of the box?
Yet multiple choice papers are already marked by computer, and it seems likely all other exams will follow. In an education system like ours, which is ridiculously overloaded with tests and exams, cheap and easy marking systems are bound to win the day.
This may not be no worse than having fallible human examiners, especially if computer-testing reminds us that mass exams can never be more than crude measuring devices, and that some other system might be a better way of profiling pupils' achievements and competencies.
Readers' advice
Oh, how I sympathise with your reader. In 1950, my teacher told me that, when I grew up, there would be machines, about the size of a typewriter, that you could have on your desk to do sums. I didn't believe her.
Michael Baldwin, Kent
Presumably, computer-marking only worries you because of issues of creativity, lateral thinking, off-beat ideas and so on. So why, then, are you so gullible and uncritical about what some teacher has told your daughter is likely to happen? No, it isn't likely. The teacher is wrong. Relax.
Barry A Hills, Clwyd
Does your reader also know that the new science GCSEs are going to be marked that way? Pupils will sit a half-hour multiple-choice test, which they can retake if they don't feel they've done well at it. Apart from that, all they have to do is write a few short answers to questions that their teachers will mark. There is no traditional exam, as such, which means these science GCSEs are not at all like our traditional British public qualifications, but more like the kind of tick-box tests used in America. Science teachers and other scientists are up in arms about this. They see it is as being only about making exams cheaper and easier to run, and nothing to do with pupils showing that they have understood and can explain complicated scientific arguments. Dumbing down does not even begin to describe what is happening. It is far beyond that.
Patrick McKeith, Northumberland
Next Week's Quandary
Dear Hilary
A fabulous city academy has opened next door to where we live, and we assumed we would try to get our children in there when they reached the required age, but now we see that the pupils who go to and from it are very rough and badly behaved. What is more important at secondary school - the facilities or the pupils?
Send your letters or quandaries to Hilary Wilce, to arrive no later than Monday 26 February to 'The Independent', Education Desk, Independent House, 191 Marsh Wall, London E14 9RS; or fax: 020-7005 2143; or e-mail: h.wilce@ btinternet.com. Please include your postal address. Readers whose letters are printed will receive a Berol Combi Pack of a cartridge pen, handwriting pen and ink eraser.
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