Edexcel

Edexcel is a London-based organisation and one of England, Wales and Northern Ireland's five main examination boards. The others are AQA, OCR, the WJEC and the CCEA. Its name is a portmanteau word derived from the words "educational" and "excellence". Edexcel offers a variety of qualifications to UK students, including A-levels and GCSEs. It also operates on an international level, awarding over 1.5 million certificates to students around the world every year.Edexcel is the UK's largest Awarding body which recently gained this title from rival competitor AQA.

Contents

1 History
2 Controversy
3 DiDA and other paperless qualifications
4 Music and Music Technology A-level
5 External links

History

Edexcel was formed in 1996 by the merger of two bodies, the BTEC (Business & Technology Education Council) and ULEAC (University of London Examinations and Assessment Council). In 2003, the Edexcel Foundation (the charity which managed the board) formed a partnership with Pearson PLC to set up a new company called London Qualifications Ltd, which was 75% owned by Pearson and 25% by the Edexcel Foundation. London Qualifications Limited changed its name to Edexcel Limited in November 2004.

In 2005 Edexcel became the only large examination board to be held in private hands, when Pearson PLC took complete control. Edecel became a profit-making company and so lost its charitable tax status. Over the last two years there has been a turnaround in fortunes as Edexcel invests heavily in new technology.

Controversy

Edexcel was widely derided when it turned out some of its mathematics questions were impossible to answer. The answer sheet for an AS-Level mathematics paper contained different numbers to the exam question.[link] It was detected eight hours before the exams started in the UK, by a school in Hong Kong which immediately informed Edexcel. However, Edexcel allowed the exams in Europe and the UK to continue without alerting the candidates or invigilators. During the marking process, compensation was given to candidates by giving credit to those who had used either the figures on the question paper or on the answer sheet.

Edexcel has often come under fire for operational errors, unfair marking and unusually difficult paper setting. One of the most dramatic events in its history was the debacle surrounding the 2001-2002 mathematics papers and their marking. This led to an audit of Edexcel by the QCA in 2001.

In spite of this, Edexcel continued on its modernisation drive, introducing IGCSEs in 2004 to complement their O-Levels outside the UK. In addition, Edexcel has since 2004 introduced new Optical Mark/Character Recognition papers - primarily into Maths and Language papers - to enable computerized marking of exam scripts as well as to facilitate the outsourcing of marking to other countries. Some candidates apparantly find the use of barcodes and check lines - as well as the typical Optical Mark Recognition fill-in-cross/box - both distracting and risky in terms of the possibility of lost marks if the barcodes or check lines are altered inadvertantly, thus possibly causing the mechanical reader to skip the requisite page in the script.

Controversy returned in 2005 when investigation by The Times Educational Supplement revealed that scores as low as 16% could gain a 'C' grade in mathematics[link] and that exam scripts were being marked by office staff and students [link].

DiDA and other paperless qualifications

Edexcel's modernisation has led to the development of the DiDA qualification. DiDA (Diploma in Digital Applications) is one of three newly-created paperless qualifications: AiDA (Applications in Digital Applications) - equivalent to one GCSEs; CiDA (Certificate in Digital Applications) - equivalent to two GCSEs; and finally DiDA (Diploma in Digital Applications) - equivalent to four GCSEs.

These 'paperless' qualifications are primarily designed to redress the perceived imbalance between those skills learnt in the classroom and the resulting application in the workplace. The new qualifications are designed to develop more practical skills whilst promoting independent learning and creativity. The qualifications have survived the initial stages of testing throughout the academic year 2005-06 and are expected to be rolled out in many more schools beginning academic year 2006-07.

Music and Music Technology A-level

In July 2006, Edexcel announced that it had decided not to seek re-accreditation for both GCE A-level Music and GCE A-level Music Technology from QCA, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the regulatory body for public examinations. In effect, they will no longer offer these A-level subjects after 2009 – the last AS cohort of students will begin in September 2007. This decision was reached without the consultation of senior examiners, schools or colleges.

Edexcel said that "the complexity of the current assessment model" and "constraints of QCA’s new subject criteria" make it impossible to produce a sustainable specification which will be attractive to schools and colleges.

Edexcel has, by far, the largest number of candidates entered for A-level Music because many centres consider that their specification is most suited to preparing students for progression to degree study and, despite some problems with administration of the coursework elements, the course offers a good balance of knowledge and skills with sufficient flexibility to support specialism.

Currently, Edexcel is the only examination board offering Music Technology AS and A2 qualifications. The decision, in effect, kills off A-level Music Technology at a time when student numbers are growing rapidly, centres have made significant investment in resources, and Higher Education acceptance of the subject is good and improving.

External links

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.