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Waddell (1978) Notes on the text Part I Preliminary pages Contents, Membership
Part II Preliminary pages Contents, Membership Report of the Education Study Group (ESG) Glossary, Introduction
Report of the Cost Study Group (CSG) Chapter 1 Introduction
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The Waddell Report (1978)
School examinations Report of the Steering Committee established to consider proposals for replacing the General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level and Certificate of Secondary Education examinations by a common system of examining Chairman: Sir James Waddell CB Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Education and Science and the Secretary of State for Wales by Command of Her Majesty July 1978 London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1978
Part I: Cmnd 7281-I
Part II - CSG Report Chapter 4 Changeover costs
85. This term is used to cover the non-recurring effect on major items of expenditure of changing to a common system of examining. Many such will be 'hidden' costs and local education authority costs, which we have touched on in the latter part of the previous chapter. Thus we discuss here mainly the implications of changing to a common system for the examining boards, although there is much that follows that has relevance for schools and all of it is of concern to the local authorities. Syllabus development 86. A major factor in changing over to a common system is the need to develop a range of new syllabuses. It has been assumed that new syllabuses will need to be developed within a common system, although we make some exception to this rule when we come to Mode III syllabuses. In order to estimate syllabus development costs a number of assumptions have to be made. a. The number of syllabuses to be developed. This must depend on the groupings and decisions on the extent to which each board provides its own syllabus(es) for each subject.87. To arrive at the number of syllabuses that would need to be developed, we extracted figures from the schedules completed by boards at the time of the accountants' visits. These show: Mode I Syllabuses88. The cost of preparing a syllabus is more problematical. The May 1976 publication of the Standing Conference of Regional Examinations Boards, 'The Development of Syllabuses' offers a cost for CSE boards of £1,400. The information we have for GCE boards is more impressionistic; the AEB have suggested £5,450 but other experience suggests that a cost of between £4,000 and £5,000 would be nearer the mark for the GCE sector. 89. The wide difference between the level of cost for the two types of board is partly accounted for by the inclusion in the GCE figures of elements for overheads, staff salaries etc, not included in the CSE figures. For our purposes, the CSE approach is the more relevant, since the aim is to identify only the necessary additional cost of activities caused by changing to a common system, not to allocate total board expenditures across certain headings. Nevertheless, account has to be taken of higher GCE board costs in this respect, and allowance made for the possibility that the level of activity may be such that additional staff and/or advisers may have to be employed on a temporary basis. We also recognise that the development costs will vary greatly from one subject to another in preparing for a common system. The need to achieve a satisfactory result will always be paramount and, in the major subjects particularly, must imply wide consultations and a high level of activity. With all these considerations in mind, and after discussion with the Schools Council, we have taken a figure of £3,500 as the average cost for constructing a new syllabus under a common system. An estimate of the cost of syllabus development: Mode I-type syllabuses 90. By reference to the statistics above, the maximum number of new syllabuses would be in the region of 1,200 - ie based on 14 CSE boards at 40 syllabuses each, and eight GCE boards at 80 syllabuses each. But such a figure is almost certainly too high. It takes no account of the overall number of syllabuses reducing under a common system if boards form themselves into groups, nor of the possibility that some syllabuses designed for a limited ability range might not change. In Chapter 3 we postulated possible reductions in the numbers of syllabuses needed under certain administrative structures, and the same assumptions are carried through in our calculations below. Thus, on the basis of 1,200 syllabuses at a development cost of £3,500 each, we arrive at a total development cost of £4,200,000; for 800 syllabuses the total cost would be £2,800,000; and for 600 syllabuses it would be £2,100,000. Mode III-type syllabuses 91. In terms of examining board expenditure, the development and moderation costs of Mode III syllabuses are not high. Typically, rates of £10 are paid for each of these two stages although such payments are not of course intended to reflect the economic cost of the work that has been put in; the element of 'hidden' cost in such work has been referred to earlier. Board statistics show that approximately 12,000 Mode III syllabuses exist. It is improbable that all these would need to be revised in the context of a common system; indeed a great many, particularly those devised for entirely local purposes, would not. Assuming therefore that some 5,000 would require substantial revision at a cost of £20 each, the expenditure involved would be £100,000. Normal development costs 92. Most examining boards have a programme of continuous revision of their syllabuses, whereby each comes up for a major review every five years. This does not mean, however, that each undergoes a substantial revision every five years. The proportion that do is not known, but we have assumed 50 per cent, ie 600, being half the 1,200 arrived at in paragraph 90. This implies that 120 major syllabus revisions would take place per year throughout the system if no work in developing common syllabuses took the place of such activity. 93. We have taken the length of time available for developing syllabuses for a common system to be either three or five years. The resultant annual costs are expressed in the table below. 94. Thus the annual additional cost might be £10,000, if half the syllabuses were produced over a five-year period. Although the table costs the other end of the range, with 1,200 syllabuses being produced over three years, this seems to us in practice an impossible undertaking. A five-year period would surely be required, and the maximum annual cost which we regard as practicable is therefore the £537,000 representing the production of 800 syllabuses over three years. Board staffing 95. In Chapter 3 we costed three alternative administrative structures that were theoretically possible under a common system. It is clear in model iii, and implicit in model ii, that some reduction in the permanent staff of boards would result from the reorganisations at least in the longer term. Such reductions would flow from the reorganisation process in each case, rather than from the introduction of a common system. That is to say, they result if, for whatever reason, one board merges with another or otherwise goes out of business. It may be that in the next decade the decline in secondary school rolls would in any case oblige boards to contemplate such mergers or closures, irrespective of possible changes in the structure of examinations. Nevertheless, if it were introduced, a common system would obviously be a major factor in any rationalisation that came about and we have costed in models ii and iii the savings that might follow from that development in terms of staff reductions. Such reductions would be likely to occur in the rather longer term, starting only after the completion of the first period of development and preparation for a common system - a period in which we envisage boards needing all their experienced staff. 96. If staff do become redundant as a result of the introduction of a common system, the need to make appropriate provision for the individuals concerned should be seen as a changeover cost in this context. The terms of such provision are of course outside our remit. We are in no position to offer any costing for model ii, but the number of staff involved is unlikely to be great and the total expenditure would be modest; for an outcome on the lines of model iii the cost would be higher, as implied in the table in paragraph 73. Computer costs 97. A change to a common system of examining would have some short-term effect on boards' computer costs, in the form of additional expenditure on programming and development. This should, however, be offset, in models i and ii at least, by all boards within a group adopting similar practices and procedures derived from existing ones. As board expenditure was only £627,000 on this item, we have assumed that any net increase would be minimal. 'Hidden' costs 98. We described in Chapter 2 the findings from the visits made to 23 schools by members of HM Inspectorate and the team of accountants, offering in effect a retrospective statement about the academic year 1976-77. In considering the likely effects on 'hidden' costs if a common system of examining were introduced it is scarcely practicable to go beyond generalised statements. In the run-in period for a new system there would clearly be a substantial increase in work on developing syllabuses, above all in those subjects not covered by the feasibility studies and joint examinations which have been mounted. A great deal of work would be required in all main subjects, representing a major 'hidden' factor in changeover costs. Teachers would be involved in preparing for the new system not only within their schools, but in board subject panel and working party meetings, and in attending regional or national consultative conferences. It is the extent to which all this activity would impinge on school time, and thus school resources, that would determine the extent of the 'hidden' costs. School and LEA costs 99. Other pressures on schools' and local education authorities' expenditures must also be assumed. New syllabuses imply at least the possibility that new textbooks and other teaching materials will be required, and provision of these might well show a sharp increase during the changeover period, with obvious implications for school capitation allowances. Furthermore, local education authorities would no doubt wish to take account in their in-service training programmes of the desirability of teachers being fully prepared to meet the educational requirements of the new system, including possible developments in assessment methods. 100. Undoubtedly such short-term additional costs would be felt within the schools and authorities. It seems reasonable to suppose, however, that the longer-term prospect would be more beneficial in costs terms, if the assumption is accepted that the total number of syllabuses would settle at a level below what is current in the dual system. 
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