Ofqual head adds her voice to the growing concern over pace of Michael Gove’s education reforms

The head of the exams regulator Ofqual today added her voice to the growing concern over the timetable for implementing Education Secretary Michael Gove’s GCSE reforms.

Glenys Stacey, its chief executive, put her hand up when those present at the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC) in Belfast were asked for a show of hands from tose who were concerned about the timetable for introducing the Government’s new English Baccalaureate.

Her stance came the day after influential Conservative backbencher Graham Stuart, chairman of the Commons education select committee, had told the same conference that the proposals were “incoherent” and urged Mr Gove to stop taking his “urgency pills”.

Mr Gove wants pupils to start studying for the EBacc in English, maths and science in September 2015 and take the exam for the first time in the summer of 2017.

Addressing the conference, she added: “We will advise government on the timetable for change and we will say if it is not achievable.”

She said that Ofqual would also study proposals to reform exam boards by only allowing one board to take responsibility for each subject through a bidding system.

“We will say if the risk to standards and delivery are unacceptable,” she added.