OCR does not offer courses on ‘cheating' Wednesday 25 April 2007

OCR Chief Executive Greg Watson has hit back at allegations in The Times that we're "making thousands of pounds from selling tips to schools on how to beat" the exam system.

In an article published on Saturday, the newspaper suggested that we offer some £120 courses in ‘cheating'. It cited our course in GCSE English literature titled "Get ahead - improving candidate performance".

Greg has written to the Editor of The Times, saying that we offer courses like this "because we want teachers to teach OCR syllabuses well, so that candidates perform to the best of their ability in the exams."

"Senior examiners who get to see large numbers of exam answers can give teachers valuable insights into areas candidates tend to struggle with and which might warrant extra effort from teachers."

"If those candidates taught by teachers who attend our training events have an "advantage", it's the advantage they get from having a teacher who is motivated to improve their teaching of the subject."

"The same would be true for patients of GPs who keep their knowledge up to date versus those of GPs who don't."

"If as Alan Smithers suggests, "boards should stop offering such sessions" we would return to the old days in which a privileged few teachers who knew the examiner personally were able to get such insights, leaving the rest to struggle in the dark."

"OCR provides up to 1,500 training events a year, many of which, particularly with new syllabuses or with complex moderation schemes, are free."

"We do not even set targets for producing a financial surplus on these activities."

"Costs of running training events include venue hire, catering, printed materials and CD-ROMs, preparation and postage of printed materials and CD-ROMs, software and hardware for booking systems, pre-publicity, tutors and administrative staff - to name but a few."

"The charges we do make barely cover those costs in most instances."