Separate and
Unequal - Are the pioneers being punished?
The internet is so accepted as an integral part of our daily
life that it’s hard to remember a time when we didn’t look on line for
information and use a variety of services to help us in so many ways: checking
our bank statements; comparing prices; assessing what illness our symptoms may
be the cause of; so the internet rules with confidence, that is until you come
to education. Secondary school education, in particular.
On line high schools are an established feature of education
in the United States and other industrialised countries - arguably the long
standing Australian School of the Air has been a form of distance learning for
many generations. Such on line schools would appear to sit comfortably beside
physical schools and provide a full curriculum of education in core subjects
for those children in remote areas; who are chronically ill; who have severe anxiety
and for whatever reason have failed to thrive in regular schools. Not so in Britain, where programmes by online
providers are viewed with suspicion and where efforts to gain equal access for
examinations are blocked at every turn.
On line schools in Britain deliver the curriculum with the
aid of modern software which allows staff and students to interact with each other
and to sit GCSEs and A levels, as private candidates in the areas where they
live. Often such schools teach overseas pupils who want to benefit from the Key
Stage 3, 4 and 5 education system though they are not located in this country.
The online teaching provided is not considered as a school according to some Exam
Boards who refuse to accredit these institutions. With this refusal comes a
denial of access to schemes of work and to material designed to help students -
in brief- discrimination against pupils who are not seen as conforming by
attending physical school. This is a
strange attitude to adopt when many higher educational establishments are
delivering courses on line, think of the Open University, an institution with
impeccable credentials.
Such refusals by the
exam boards to give on line students access, goes against their published
policies of quality and inclusion; Cambridge International Examination states
in its specification documents that: “Cambridge
International Examinations has taken great care in the preparation of this
syllabus and assessment materials to avoid bias of any kind. To comply with the
UK Equality Act (2010), Cambridge has designed this qualification with the aim
of avoiding direct and indirect discrimination”
An AQA subject website declares: “We speak to teachers every day, from every type of school, and are
proud of the support we give schools”
Cambridge
International again: “The standard assessment arrangements
may present unnecessary barriers for candidates with disabilities or learning
difficulties. Arrangements can be put in place for these candidates to enable
them to access the assessments and receive recognition of their attainment.”
Laudable
policies; such a pity they don’t extend to online schools and their students.
Frustrated Head of Curriculum and Learning
