Rude words ii
Pupils are being rewarded for writing obscenities in their GCSE English examinations even when it has nothing to do with the question.
One pupil who wrote “f*** off” was given marks for accurate spelling and conveying a meaning successfully.
His paper was marked by Peter Buckroyd, a chief examiner who has instructed fellow examiners to mark in the same way. He told trainee examiners recently to adhere strictly to the mark scheme, to the extent that pupils who wrote only expletives on their papers should be awarded points.
Mr Buckroyd, chief examiner of English for the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), an examination board, said that he had given the pupil two marks, out of a possible 27, for the expletive.
I always took the use of expletives as an indication of the inability of the individual to express himself or herself in 'proper' language. On the other hand, is it unreasonable to hold back marks when the student is giving a grammatically correct report of the use of expletives in a conversation conducted by a third party? In reporting I value truth and accuracy even when the news is bad.
Posted by: Paul Oldfield | July 06, 2008 at 07:35 AM