Do we need exams?

Education is about facilitating learning, or the gaining of knowledge, skills, values and habits. Exams are commonplace in formal education procedures but many would argue that they are merely memory tests – providing a snapshot of the knowledge, not ability.

Exams don’t differentiate. What if you’re having a really bad day? What if you suffer from mental blocks? What if you really, really can’t climb trees? It makes you wonder if exams and assessments are a fair reflection of a young person’s abilities, contributions and learning. The heart-warming video from GCSE student Ellie Chick which went viral last summer says it all.

What valuable skills do exams provide us with?

A well-designed exam can certainly assess our ability to apply knowledge, demonstrate information or think critically about a scenario. These processes are what employers are looking for, and skills that education should definitely be developing in young people.

However, exams also do more than assessing learning – they promote it in a number of ways:

Unlocking the potential of exams

We think exams have a place but that they need to be appropriate to the knowledge and skills being assessed - and they need to form part of a balanced curriculum and assessment programme.

For instance, the new style of GCSEs, which are heavily weighted towards a final set of exams at the end of the two-year course may disadvantage those that are much more suited to projects and coursework. What’s more, an excessive focus on exams may point towards an ever-narrowing curriculum, at a time when employers across all industries are looking for employees to have a broader array of social and emotional skills, over and above technical skills.

Perhaps we need to stop and reassess. Are exams really doing what we want them to do? Education Secretary Damian Hinds has called for a focus on character and resilience as the building blocks for young people’s future success, alongside formal qualifications and a panel is now exploring the best ways for young people to build character and resilience.

Hinds didn’t suggest that more exams were the answer to developing character. And we don’t think they are either. Testing has to go hand-in-hand with a variety of experiences that make up young people’s education in and out of school. There is a whole range of methods to help young people develop their knowledge, skills, values and habits, and most of them don’t end in a school hall filled with rows of desks. As an organisation, we’re here to help schools, employers and educators recognise the value of alternative forms of learning and assessment and make it a priority to ensure that young people’s learning opportunities are diverse, inclusive, and holistic.