Why we must move away from a written only means of assessment - across all subjects.

Meet Dave.* A bright and brilliant Year 7 student, enthusiastic and keen to participate. In German lessons, he will speak confidently and gain high marks in speaking assessments and vocab tests, but he will not write. The common perception, of course, is that he is just being lazy, however the image of a boy with his head resting against the palm of his hand, with a pained expression on his face whilst gazing into thin air, makes me feel otherwise.

This is also true for Luke*, a motivated Year 11 student who could verbally explain to me perfectly all of the processes of river erosion and transportation, yet for some reason he could not get it down on paper. His continuous disappointment at his low marks for his writing is killing his once passionate approach to Geography.

I found myself wondering: why is it, that once you leave the school system, you are judged on your knowledge from conversations. Whether these conversations happen in the street, in the pub, in the workplace, among friends and family, or making new acquaintances, connections are made and enhanced through speech. The majority of job interviews are assessed through speech, and I am sure that students who can articulate themselves well through speech, such as David* and Luke* would certainly impress many at a job interview.

Only they probably wouldn't get an interview, because on their CVs, they may have a range of average or low grades for school subjects which are assessed through writing only - which is, wait a minute...almost ALL of them. And even then, practical elements never account for a large percentage of the overall GCSE.

I am not suggesting that written assessment should be scrapped altogether, as writing is indeed an important skill, especially in the age of predictive text and automatic spell correction, which for some is hampering the ability to write independently (but that's a whole other debate!)

I am suggesting that a 50/50 blended approach of spoken and written assessment should be applied across all subjects - which allows not only those who are stronger in speaking but less able in writing to have a fair chance, but also works for those who are very confident writers, but maybe less comfortable to speak. It seems simple, but the reality is that the assessment of speaking is a much lengthier process than assessing a written piece. Would exam boards need to hire more examiners? Yet they would surely save costs on printing and postage, as there are a multitude of ways that student responses could be digitally recorded and electronically sent.

So my question is...why can't students who are not as strong in writing have the chance to prove themselves through speech, as they would be able to in a job interview?

*Anonymized for student protection