• determining and awarding grades, including the cost of meetings and appeals machinery;

• publication of results and the issue of certificates, including the cost of printing and despatching.

19. We have confined ourselves in this report to studying only those figures of examining board expenditure which are relevant to the consideration of a common system. The tables in Annex B provide a more detailed analysis of board costs in 1976.

Total board expenditure

20. The total expenditure of the boards is summarised in the table below. Regarding the WJEC as two boards, the 14 CSE and 8 GCE boards spent about £21m in 1976 in processing over 8m subject entries of all types and at all levels. Of this total the CSE boards processed 2.65m at a cost of £6.5m, and the GCE boards 5.49m at a cost of nearly £14.5m. With their A Level and overseas business and their winter examinations, the GCE boards generally operate on a larger scale than the others and only 10 per cent of their total expenditure was devoted to the indirect costs of administration as against 17 per cent for the CSE boards.

Table 1

21. The direct expenditure of the boards on 16+ examinations and of the GCE boards on all examinations is shown in the histogram on the page opposite [link below]. The non-16+ activity of the CSE boards has been ignored as it accounts for only about £150,000 throughout the system. With the exception of SUJB (which had the lowest expenditure of all boards) the total expenditure of every GCE board was higher than that of any CSE board.

Histogram: Total direct expenditure

Total 16+ expenditure

22. Of the total CSE direct expenditure of £5.1m, £4.9m was incurred in processing 2.6m 16+ examination subject entries. GCE boards spent £6.0m out of their total of £12.2m on processing 3m 16+ subject entries. Even when the direct expenditure on 16+ examinations is compared, 5 of the GCE boards remain well above all others in size.

23. Diagram A following gives the total direct cost per subject entry for each board in relation to the size of its operation. If the WJEC figures are excluded as a special case (ie in that it runs both GCE and CSE examinations) the range of total direct costs is from £1.43 (TWYLREB) to £2.63 (ALSEB) on the CSE side; and from £1.54 (SUJB) to £2.15 (London) on the GCE side. The diagram shows no close relationship between size and total cost per subject entry. One of the lowest such costs was for the smallest of the boards - the SUJB - and the highest was for the smallest CSE board - ALSEB. The 5 largest (GCE) boards were all among the most expensive in these terms, and although among the CSE boards there is perhaps some discernible relationship between size and economy the evidence is inconclusive. However, a crucial factor in these costs for all boards is the style and type of service each provides. Approaches to the processes of examining vary greatly, with implications for costs. For example, the low cost for the SUJB should be seen against their policy that candidates sit only a single paper in many examinations, whereas other boards set 2 papers per candidate for most examinations; in this context the SUJB's unit costs for payments for examiners and for printing and stationery etc may be thought less out of line with other boards' costs than at first appears. At the other end, ALSEB's high costs are in part explained by the degree of control it exercises as a board over school-based assessment, as indicated below in paragraph 26.

Diagram A: Total direct cost per subject entry

Diagram B: Direct salaries cost per subject entry

24. Consideration of the direct salaries costs per subject entry (Diagram B) indicates a closer relationship between size and cost. These costs account for 46p per subject entry for the CSE boards as a whole, and 44p per subject entry for the GCE boards. However, 6 CSE boards have a higher salaries and wages unit cost than any GCE board; and all 6 are among the 7 smallest CSE boards. By contrast, 4 of the largest CSE boards have a unit cost of 31p or less, which are among the lowest figures. The notable exception to this general rule is the TWYLREB CSE board, which is one of the smallest boards and has the lowest (21p) unit cost for direct salaries and wages. The reason for this might be found in the board's policy of delegating what would normally be board committee and panel work to groups and committees of teachers, the cost of these activities thus being transferred to the schools as a 'hidden' cost of examining.

25. This leads naturally to a consideration of whether the proportion of Modes I and II work to Mode III work within a board has a significant effect on direct costs, and suggests that the result is likely to be inconclusive, since the true costs may not show up in the board's accounts. But figures in the table below are nevertheless relevant to our purpose. They show that the incidence of Mode III varies greatly between boards - from 70.5 per cent in TWYLREB to 10.3 per cent in the WMEB, but with the NREB having the second highest total at the relatively low figure of 38.8 per cent. Both these Mode III-oriented boards show a lower cost per subject entry for their Mode III work than for their Mode I. But generalisation is difficult, since the board with the next highest incidence of Mode III is EAEB, where the cost is double that for its Mode I work; and then EMREB, where the costs per subject entry of Mode III and Mode I are identical. It is likely that, in some instances at least, low Mode III costs mask a transfer from board expenditure to 'hidden' costs in schools.

Table 2 Direct costs per subject entry for English CSE Boards, 1976

26. Thus the effect of Mode III on costs does not admit of any straightforward conclusions, although the evidence we offer in part II of this chapter, on 'hidden' costs, does support the view that Mode III work is very consuming of teachers' time. But within the context of board costs the situation is obviously more subtle and, as we noted in paragraph 15, differences in style of examining and board involvement must be assumed to affect costs. This is true in a general sense (ie such differences affect Mode I costs as well) but for Mode III the extent to which the board concerns itself in operating the system is likely to have important cost implications. A board's involvement may range from being concerned in each and every stage of Mode III preparation and examining, to settling only the final grades given to candidates. ALSEB, for example, pays for an element of teacher assessment in virtually all its examinations, but its overall costs are high because it services all teachers' meetings and processes, prints and proof-reads all papers within the board. It has 33 full-time equivalent staff, compared with 27 and 25 respectively at the other two smallest CSE boards, Middlesex and YREB. On the other hand, EAEB, a large board with 31.5 per cent of its entries in Mode III, does not involve itself heavily in the operation of this work. Many subject panel meetings are held in teacher centres provided free by the local authority, and the board's staff do not engage themselves substantially in this work; also the printing of papers is arranged by individual schools, who receive a fee from the board. The combined effect is a smaller expenditure on Mode III than might be expected, although the cost per subject entry for this board is still fairly high. The unit costs for printing and stationery often reflect different approaches by boards (eg in-house or external) and different printers may be used for Mode I and Mode III; as indicated, the schools themselves may print Mode III papers. These factors and variations in commercial rates throughout the country make it difficult to offer a more useful interpretation of these figures in the above table.

Activity analysis

27. As the schedules indicate, examining boards were asked to categorise their direct expenditure in two ways. The first involved a breakdown into elements such as salaries and wages, computer costs, payments to and expenses of examiners and teachers, other payments relating to examiners' meetings, printing and stationery, carriage and postage; and the second involved an analysis into the main activities of examining, ie setting syllabuses, examinations, marking, setting grade boundaries, and results. The full statement of this analysis is incorporated in the tables annexed to this report, and in view of the amount of detail available we restrict ourselves here to identifying the highest, lowest, and average costs for all modes in what seem to us the most significant areas.

Table 3 Analysis by type of expenditure, 1976

28. The most striking feature of the figures in this table is that the mean figures reveal a considerable degree of similarity between CSE and GCE boards. For each set of boards payments to teachers and examiners comprise half their expenditure, and salaries and printing costs take up most of the other half. The similarity of the figures for payments to teachers and examiners needs to be seen against the different approaches of the GCE and CSE boards, with the former making few payments to teachers (because of the very small amount of Mode III examining on the GCE side) but making much higher payments to examiners overseeing Mode I examinations.

Table 4 Analysis of expenditure by activities

29. The above table excludes figures for the AEB, Cambridge, and WJEC boards; the accountants concluded that for these the analysis of costs over the activities of examining would require arbitrary treatment of amounts already apportioned between A Levels, O Levels, overseas, etc. In any case the analysis has not been carried into the models we discuss in Chapter 3, for which it was not indeed needed. We show it here in order to bring out the point that the most expensive activities for all boards are marking scripts and arranging for and conducting examinations.

II 'HIDDEN' COSTS

30. We use this term to mean the costs of examining which are not shown separately in the accounts of examining boards or local education authorities. They arise mainly within the schools, and their largest single feature is the cost of teacher time for which either no payment is made by boards, or where the payment (mainly by CSE boards for Mode III work) cannot be said to reflect the economic costs involved. Such time may be spent at board committee and/or subject panel meetings; in the preparation of school-based syllabuses and examination papers; and in such course assessment work and marking as is an integral part of CSE and GCE O Level examinations. Other 'hidden' costs might include such items as the use of accommodation for examinations, and the 'cost' of invigilation. But teacher costs are different in kind from the others, in that they represent the time teachers devote to examination work in and out of school. Although some local education authorities operate their secondary school staffing ratios to make them more favourable in the fifth year, in order to take account of examination activity, few if any are believed to make separate or identifiable allowance for the time teachers spend outside their teaching on work in connection with examinations.

31. To ascertain the extent of these 'hidden' costs 23 schools were visited. These included selective, comprehensive and modern schools, of various sizes situated in urban and rural areas, and all the regions covered by the CSE boards were included in the visits. Nevertheless, the time available did not allow a structured selection of schools to be visited, nor was it possible to make sufficient visits to provide the same measure of accuracy that might have been achieved from a full-scale statistically-based survey. Thus the results take no real account of the fact that the deployment of teacher resources varies greatly from one school to another, with the balance between teaching and non-teaching periods often reflecting local circumstances. And, although there is often no readily discernible line between teacher time spent on normal classroom activity and time spent on various examination activities, it was necessary to distinguish between the two for the purpose of the exercise. In practice, this had to be done by relying on the judgements made by the school staffs themselves, who were considering a period which began 15 months beforehand. For all these reasons, we do not suggest that from the information we have acquired generalisations can be made with any confidence.

32. The information supplied by the schools visited was on standard forms, copies of which are at Annex C. These questionnaires were completed by 290 teachers and all the head teachers at 23 schools. Both heads and teachers were invited to comment on the issues raised by the cost of examining. All the heads and 50 teachers did so. The questionnaires covered:

a. a summary of teacher deployment for the whole school;
b. statements by individual teachers of their involvement in examining;
c. estimates of expenditure under such headings as printing, postage, packing and materials; and
d. numbers of pupils entered for examinations by subject, level and mode.

Summary of teacher deployment

33. Very little useful information could be obtained about the number of periods per week allocated for activities related to examining. Fifteen schools did not allocate any periods for the purpose and no firm evidence was available about whether or how individual teacher timetables in these schools were weighted to make allowance for examination workloads; or about the extent to which staff had to be covered by other teachers when away at board/panel meetings or otherwise engaged on examination work during school hours. It can only be said in general terms that several heads allocated the relatively high proportion of non-teaching periods for certain teachers with responsibility for examinations, in terms of heavy amounts of examination administration work; that examination activity taking teachers away from the classroom puts pressure on other teachers; and that if it is separately remunerated, the necessity for other teachers to cover the absence can put a strain on staff goodwill.

34. Of the eight schools which made specific allowance for examination administration, two set aside four periods per week, and one each set aside 2, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 12 periods.

35. The schools were also asked to provide figures for the numbers of periods actually taken up with the running of GCE O Level and CSE examinations in 1976-77, both within the school and elsewhere. The work within the school included all examination administration, course assessment and school-based examinations' preparation and assessment; that outside covered board, committee and subject panel meetings, board courses, agreement trials and visits to other schools as examiners and moderators. The results here were more helpful, with 19 schools providing reliable data. The averages and ranges for these schools were:

The figures are averages for all the teachers at all the schools. Obviously they conceal the fact that some teachers had a heavy involvement in examining and others none at all. The heavy involvement is principally in the autumn and in May/June.

The involvement of individual teachers in examining

36. The approach of the visits was to take, on the advice of the head, a selection of teachers involved in examinations at each school, but including at all schools all the teachers of English; at nine schools all the teachers of biology were also included.

37. The commitment of teachers to active involvement in examinations is part of the whole amount of energy available for development work in school. One head had made the comment that 'the greater the involvement of staff the greater the entry rate and the greater the demand on fixed resources'. There was some feeling among teachers that the returns gave an inadequate picture of the time and effort expended on some Mode III examinations work; one suggested 100-120 hours a year was needed for a Mode III paper. The decision to undertake such work is of course at the discretion of the teachers; but the general administration of examinations is unavoidable, and comments stressed the amount of time a teacher with an overall responsibility for examinations may spend on this.

38. The teachers were most helpful in providing returns but we have decided on balance not to offer any analysis of these. Not only was the sample too small to have any statistical validity, but the figures provided were themselves subject to considerable uncertainties; inevitably so when it is remembered that they reflected statements of recollections going back 15 months, and perhaps differing interpretations of what was examination work and what was not. The broad impression given by the returns was, however, clear. It was that the involvement of teachers in preparing syllabuses and syllabus elements, and in the assessment of course work, is very consuming of teacher time; much more so than board-based examination activity. This manifested itself most clearly in relation to Mode III work, where teacher involvement is by definition substantial; but it also showed up in Mode I work, where the time spent on CSE was greater than that on O Level, presumably because CSE Mode I syllabuses generally involve a larger measure of teacher participation. The most marked differences, however, in terms of teacher time per subject entry, were between Mode I examining as a whole and Mode III.

Local education authorities

39. There are also 'hidden' costs for examinations activity within the authorities. Visits were made to 20 local education authorities maintaining the schools covered by this section: including seven metropolitan counties, two outer London boroughs, ILEA, eight non-metropolitan counties and two Welsh counties. The basis in each case was one of general enquiry under a number of headings, but it was not found possible to quantify the results in terms of costs and we therefore limit our report on these visits to a general statement. The visits identified 'hidden' costs in relation to personnel, use of premises, and in-service training.

Personnel

40. Most authorities visited attached no separate costing to examinations other than the direct cost of fees. All appeared to be aware of increasing teacher participation in the administration of examinations; one, with the help of the local CSE board, had costed this in terms of teacher time, finding that over a total of 30 secondary schools the cost was equivalent to that of 2.5 teachers per annum. In only two cases had a supply teacher been allowed specifically against teacher absence on examination duties. However, in some authorities teacher absence on such duties may be a factor, among others, contributing to the granting of a supply teacher. None of the authorities visited specifically took account of teacher participation in examinations in calculating the teacher/pupil ratio.

41. The involvement of LEA officers in duties relating to public examinations was spread over the year, and difficult to cost. Generally, a senior officer would attend a minimum of about four days of CSE board meetings yearly; in two cases advisers were involved in subject panel meetings. To this must be added the time taken for routine administrative functions; these could not properly be costed, but one large urban authority estimated that 10 per cent of a senior officer's time (plus the full time of one clerk) was involved.

One authority quoted the hire of invigilators as a further cost. Preparation of rooms for examinations occasionally entails additional labour costs.

Use of premises

42. The extent to which authorities are aware of the use of premises for meetings concerned with public examinations varies. On the whole the view is that charges would be notional and consequently no separate budgeting is undertaken. The main use of premises (other than as examination centres) is for standardisation and moderation meetings. At least two authorities arrange for day or half-day closures of schools to accommodate a large number of such meetings. Several also expressed concern at the stress put on accommodation during the examination season; one has to hire halls to accommodate candidates. Schools were occasionally authorised to hire or purchase desks specifically for public examination use.

In-service training

43. Three authorities mount courses specifically related to assessment, but these have only incidental bearing on public examinations. In one authority the CSE board was responsible for initiating courses related to its examinations; for this the authority made premises available.

School direct expenditures on examinations

44. An inspection of the questionnaires completed by each of the 23 schools revealed a significant variation in costs arising from the use of additional resources relevant to the examining process; eg printing, packing, postage and materials. These differences are due to several factors, the chief amongst which are:

i. the GCE boards used, their location and policies; ii. the incidence of Mode III examining.

45. Generally speaking the vast majority of decisions on examinations matters are left to be determined by the individual schools. There were some instances where a local education authority had either given guidance or issued instructions to schools in its area, but these tended to be on matters that had little effect on costs. It is thus the decisions taken at school level which are largely responsible for the incidence of 'hidden' costs of examining. As one headmaster said, 'it is seen as a self-inflicted penalty outweighed by the freedom of choice'.

III SCHOOL-LEA OVERT COSTS

LEA policies

46. Three authorities imposed some limitation on the total number of entries per candidate for which they would pay, and several more refused to pay for 'repeats'. Most discouraged double entry (ie entry for GCE O Level and CSE in the same subject) although only some took this to the extent of refusing to pay for the second entry. Practice in schools tended to allow the parents to pay.

47. Some authorities were becoming aware of the financial effect of school adherence to more than one GCE board for O Level examinations, since this requires a second registration fee to be paid for each candidate. However, only two authorities had specifically discouraged the use of more than one GCE board.

48. Generally, although examinations expenditure is only a small part of their expenditure on education, there was an indication that authorities were becoming more cost conscious in regard to overt costs. Schools were being requested to have regard to total numbers of entries (including double entries and repeats), entries to Mode III (in cases where a minimum number of candidates was laid down by the board) and the number of absentees from examinations.

Provision of materials

49. Schools are normally expected to meet the costs of materials from their capitation allowances; there were only three examples of separate budgeting for such materials. Authorities were conscious that changes of syllabus requiring changes of textbooks were another burden. With the three exceptions mentioned, no authority visited made allowance specifically in relation to examinations.

50. Of particular concern to some authorities and schools is the cost of printing for Mode III examinations. Practice varies according to the policy of the CSE board. A change of policy by a board may impose a sudden burden on schools.