End of 'turn your papers over now': Handwritten exams replaced by online tests within a decade, schools chief predicts

Victorian-style handwritten exams will be consigned to history within a decade, a leading schools chief predicts.
Pen and paper tests will be scrapped and replaced with online questions which get gradually harder if students are not being challenged.
David Hanson, chief executive of the Independent Association of Prep Schools, will use a speech next week to predict that by 2023 online testing will be the norm.

History: Traditional pen and paper exams could disappear within a decade, according to private schools chief David Hanson

If exams are carried out using computers, it is likely that lessons in classrooms will also rely much less on pen, paper and textbooks.
Some schools have already faced criticism for demanding parents buy expensive tablets for use in lessons.
There are also concerns that pupils will not develop handwriting skills and become too reliant on technology, including spell checkers.
But Mr Hanson will argue that the system of students completing paper-based exams which are then sent for marking during the summer is inefficient, expensive and out-dated.
He will tell a conference of the IAPS next week: ‘By looking at the past and by tracking forward current trends, I predict that in 10 years’ time (2023) maths, English and science will still be core subjects but technology will have been completely embraced and will be used extensively by a generation of teachers who grew up with it.
‘Assessment will be by on-line adaptive tests.’

Future: With tests completed using computers, pupils will become more reliant on technology in lessons

In the adaptive tests computers analyse the answers children give and if they are finding some too easy will start presenting tougher questions to give them chance to achieve higher grades.
It is argued the move to embrace technology will also prevent a repeat of the marking rows in which papers have to be re-graded.
Ahead of the conference, Mr Hanson said: ‘We’re being forced to live with a system that we’ve had for more than a century, with children being sat down on a hot summer’s day and writing on an exam paper which is then dispatched to someone who spends their summer holiday marking it.
‘That’s not necessary. It’s expensive and it’s subject to all sorts of variables, not least human failure. That whole system is just out of step with technology and I think it’ll be consigned to history soon,’ he told the Telegraph.
‘Fundamentally, we all want an assessment and examinations system that we can believe in and it is clear confidence is being lost in the current system,’ he said.
‘It is no longer fit for purpose; it’s hugely expensive and results are unreliable because it’s too dependent on individuals sitting down and marking.’