David Cameron promises 'tough action' over GCSE and A-level exam blunders
Prime minister says mistakes are unacceptable and assures Ofqual will rectify system to prevent further errors.
David Cameron has intervened to shore up public confidence in the exam system after a string of errors in this summer's papers provoked an angry backlash from students and teachers.
The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), which represents exam boards, said that marking schemes would be adjusted to reflect the problems after at least nine errors were found in national exams.
Up to 250,000 pupils may have been affected by the blunders, according to a Labour MP who raised the issue at prime minister's questions.
Cameron said that exams regulator Ofqual would take the "toughest possible action" to prevent more mistakes in GCSE and A-level papers.
In standardisation meetings, which take place after papers have been returned, examiners will check how candidates have responded to flawed questions in order to agree a common approach to dealing with the errors.
In some cases, such as a Latin GCSE paper set by the OCR, examiners believe the blunder may have been trivial enough not to deter pupils from answering the question correctly.
An error meant that a passage by Cicero was attributed to the historian Tacitus and the names of two characters were mixed up – but the extract was published in the exam paper, so students were able to spot the mistake and answer the question. Read more... (The Guardian - 22 June)