The late Ted Wragg talks to Ken Boston, chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), about life in one of Britain's toughest education jobs.
When Boston arrived from Australia three years ago, both his predecessor Sir William Stubbs and education secretary Estelle Morris had resigned, and the exam system was in chaos.
"I must admit dismay was my first reaction," he tells Wragg. "But when I look back now, it was a period of immense opportunity, because it created a situation where reform was mandated."
Though he describes Britain's assessment process as "absolutely Rolls Royce", our marking system is, he says, "still in many ways years behind the rest of the world".
Boston is bemused by the press' fascination with results: "I'd like to have every youngster get their results at least the day before [the press], so that they're not given the results on the day when the newspapers are crying gloom and doom."
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