The 2012 GCSE fiasco - are there parallels with the Banking crisis?

Now, tutor2U is an organisation dedicated to supporting and building communities for teachers and lecturers. So, if I post a blog that criticises the report released today by Ofqual which suggests that some teachers over-graded coursework (particularly in English) during this summer's GCSE assessments you might accuse me of bias. To paraphrase Jeremy Clarkson: "You would say that - you drive a Citroen Picasso." However, in my never-ending pursuit of trying to find examples that resonate with young students of economics, is it possible to draw parallels with what happened during the GCSE assessment this year, and the mistakes made within the banking industry that lead to the current recession?

The over-grading of GCSE coursework and the subsequent down-grading of hundeds of students this summer was a big news story and the reverberations can still be felt. You might well be teaching students who have been impacted in some way - perhaps you might find some missing classes soon as they resit their English or Maths or others who might alter their aspirations with regards to which university they apply for. Schools and Colleges up and down the country certainly had to make tough decisions this September about which students were allowed forward on to post-16 courses given a disappointing outcome from GCSE results. So, the fiasco that has occurred could well mean a great deal to your own students and their friends.

Ofqual's report isn't universally accepted. Head teachers appear to be angry that the teaching profession is being blamed and some schools are still taking legal action against Ofqual and some awarding bodies on the grounds that they feel that some students have been unfairly treated. However, if you imagine for a moment that there is truth behind the report that teachers in some schools felt pressurised into inflating the grades of their students or who weren't fully aware of some of the assessment criteria changes that had occurred in between the January and June exams then it does give us an insight in to large-scale market failure or government failure when intervening in the market-place.

Have you ever had the situation in a class when you are attempting to explain the Big Crash that started in 2007 and you get that confused look back from your students that says "so why did we let all of this happen?" It is then a process of trying to explain the different arguments for and against regulation of the financial sector. The argument against is that the profit motive generated innovation within the industry and that risk allowed for massive and fast expansion. The argument for says that, the investment-banking risk was too high and eventually everyone got caught out. Governments could not allow the wholesale collapse of the banking sector that had been left with massive debts and so the bailouts started and we continue to pay for them to this day.

So how does this link with the GCSE marking crisis? First of all, you could argue that a lack of careful regulation of the awarding bodies has led to part of the problem - just as a there is a clear advantage from allowing the banks to make large profits (improves employment and the circular flow of money) there is a very clear advantage that can comes from an increase in the average performance on students. It reflects well on a government and its education policies if the outcome is an apparently more educated society. It also reflects well on an awarding body if their results are good - particularly compared to their competitors. So, as with the banking crisis, a lack of regulation could be at fault for allowing the problem to arise. Also, as with the banks and their inability to continue forever lending money to people who could not afford their repayments, the education sector could not sustain an eternal improvement of GCSE results - ultimately, if all students do well in the qualification it suggests that it isn't challenging enough and devalues its currency (and like an economy revaluing its own currency we are now seeing a wholesale change to the GCSE brand).

And what of the mass over-grading of course work by teachers in schools? The report highlights an interesting point that, during interviews with schools who felt particularly hard done by, many felt that they had marked with integrity whilst they suggested colleagues from other schools had not (I'm not sure what evidence-base was used by the teachers/headteachers who made these comments). What if it is true - what if we have a culture that concentrates more on performance measurement then educational improvement and drives grades through pushing teachers into giving students the benefit of the doubt when assessing their work? Is this too dissimilar to the culture that consumed the banking industry which encouraged its young, thrusting staff to take more and more risks to enhance their bonus and career prospects?

By the way, I still find this BBC webpage on the timeline of the financial crisis a good resource for illustrating what happened in the banking sector.