by Abigail Roch
Over 95,000 students in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands will receive their GCSE results this summer via the Education Record app, under the government trial.
The Department for Education has rolled out a pilot scheme for leaving school pupils to access their exam records digitally, which they can subsequently use to apply for further education, apprenticeships or jobs, instead of taking paper documents from schools.
Stephen Morgan, Education Minister, said: “It is high time exam records were brought into the 21st century, and this pilot will allow schools and colleges to focus on what they do best: teaching the next generation rather than being bogged down in bureaucracy.
“This government is slashing red tape through our Plan for Change to drive growth, cut admin for teachers and give tens of thousands of young people more opportunities to get on in skilled careers. It just makes sense to have all that information in an app; hopefully, it will make a big difference.”
Usually, GCSE results are sent to schools, where students are invited to collect them. The pilot runs until September and a decision will be made in autumn. If it is successful, schools and colleges could save up to £30 million annually – the DfE estimates – equivalent to the salaries of “more than 600 new teachers in further education”.
Results will be available on the Education Record at 11:00 on Thursday 21 August; however, students from these regions will still be able to get their results in person from 8:00 that day, if they wish.
It is said that the new app will relieve further education colleges from hiring extra staff to carry out administrative tasks and contact prospective students for missing paperwork.
James Bowen, Assistant General Secretary of the school leaders’ union NAHT, said he was “pleased the app is being piloted”. He added that “it makes a lot of sense to look into modernising how exam results are handled, and any moves to cut bureaucracy and costs are welcome.
“When we are dealing with something as important as exam results, it is crucial that the government gets this absolutely right.”
This announcement is part of a wider government march to overhaul digital services in the public sector.
Pepe Di’lasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that the development of technology in education so far has happened in a “frustratingly piecemeal fashion”, incited by the market instead of a collective national plan.
“We would like to see a much more strategic vision. This should extend to exams themselves, which continue to be largely conducted via pen and paper, creating a massive burden in terms of secure storage and transportation of papers and scripts.”
Abigail Roch, Journalist, LYIS
