Religion, good at keeping kids stupid.

[Gob]

The National Secular Society has accused the Government of neglecting the best interests of children after it refused to intervene following revelations that some faith schools have been blacking out questions on exam papers, depriving pupils of the ability to score the maximum marks.

Responding to a parliamentary question from Lib Dem peer Lord Avebury, the Conservative education minister Lord Nash said: "This is a matter for Ofqual".

Responding to a further question which asked the Government what representations they had made to the Children's Commissioner regarding the right of pupils to see all questions in exams they are taking, Lord Nash confirmed: "Neither Ofqual, the independent exams regulator, nor the Department for Education, have made any representations to the Children's Commissioner."

The redaction by teachers of exam questions in science papers deemed by schools to be incompatible with their religious character was exposed by the National Secular Society last year after it obtained evidence of the practice at Yesodey Hatorah Jewish Voluntary Aided Girls' School in London.

The exam board concerned, Oxford Cambridge and RSA (OCR), admitted to the NSS that because of the blacking out of questions at Yesodey Hatorah, pupils were denied the possibility of receiving full marks in their GCSE science papers. Pupils were unable to access 3 marks out of 75 for a unit in a higher GCSE science exam, and 1 mark out of 75 for a unit on a lower paper.

A more recent freedom of information request made by the NSS to Ofqual disclosed that the practice was more widespread than this example. It also revealed that OCR proposes to permit faith schools to redact questions they don't approve of, provided that it is done in collaboration with the exam board. The Department for Education describes this as a "proportionate and reasonable response".

Stephen Evans, campaigns manager at the National Secular Society, said: "The Department for Education's failure to condemn the censorship of formal exam questions is deeply lamentable.

"Redacting questions on exam papers fails pupils by denying them vital marks, but the broader concern is that this attitude extends to science classes, where children and young people are being deprived of vital scientific knowledge. Both represent the intellectual betrayal of children who are entitled to such information.

"We are also concerned that children and adolescents' sexual and reproductive health rights are being impeded by the refusal to teach such key areas of the National Curriculum as human reproduction.

"In addition to making representations to Ofqual, we have written to the Children's Commissioner calling on her to investigate pupils being disadvantaged by being shielded from key scientific principles and denied the right to achieve the best results that they can in examinations."

[dgs49]

How could you possibly write this story without saying what the redacted questions were?

Maybe there are more important things in life than getting a perfect score on a standardized test. Are the students complaining? The parents? The teachers? The article doesn't indicate that they are.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the people complaining most about this were the same people who denigrate standardized tests as "meaningless."

[Lord Jim]

Religion, good at keeping kids stupid.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Pupils were unable to access 3 marks out of 75 for a unit in a higher GCSE science exam, and 1 mark out of 75 for a unit on a lower paper.

Oh those poor children - unable to get 75/75 which I'm sure all the other non-religious school pupils attain with ease every few seconds. No - be fair. It was a GCSE (a kind of brain teaser for the less fortunate)... but on the other hand these were girls and it's science so probably 40/75 might have been attainable and a score of 44 might have made them feel a little better

[Gob]

schools which censor exam questions on topics that the schools don't want the children to know about, such as ev*l*t**n, and the conivance of the exam boards and regulator and government.

After lots of people made a fuss, the exam boards and regulator have now changed their policies:

OCR exam board: "We have now been able to consider our position and have concluded that as a matter of policy schools should not be permitted to tamper with question papers prior to a student sitting an exam".

Ofqual: "Agreements that allow redaction, in any form, to take place must not be made between awarding organisations and centres."

[MajGenl.Meade]

Evidently the quoted journal doesn't want children to know how to spell "connivance" either....