Access arrangements – under the microscope

References were made in one of last years Exam Office Blogs, to the increase in requests for access arrangements. While one can sympathise with the comments that an increase in requests means an increase in work load for exams office staff, the fact remains that exams office staff should not take any responsibility for the allocation of access arrangements without specialist advice and help. The system is quite clear on this process and if a student, parent or teacher does make a request and has all the appropriate documentation to back that request up, it is one of the roles of exams office staff to fulfil that request.
 

But how many exams office are there out there, who find themselves confronted, and emotionally pressurised by students, parents and academic staff to put in for requests for access arrangements on demand? Many will be aware that over the past few years the JCQ have pushed the responsibility onto exam centres SLT to decide who should be nominated in a centre to undertake these assessments.
 

The EOA have received calls from members questioning the nature of some of access arrangement requests and their source within their centre. While this decision process is not within an exam officers’ remit, most of these dedicated exam office staff are simply trying to apply the rules and standards set down by the JCQ. The objective is to provide a level playing field for all students taking exams across the exam spectrum.
 

Members have raised the question before about possible abuse of the system. The media have reported in the past about the growing numbers who seem to be requesting extra time in exams. Once again if the system is designed to accommodate this provision and there are processes in place to regulate outcomes then the community have to accept what ever is thrown at it.
 

In a recent meeting with Ofqual, clearly everyone seems to be fairly happy with the present JCQ rules and the use of the present online assess arrangement tool. The main concern therefore is not about trying to unpick mainstream requests, rightly or wrongly but make sure that appropriate help and support is made for a small number of requests, for very specialised cases, that sometimes challenge the perceived very ‘black and white’ feel of the JCQ rule book.