Have your say: Letters to the Editor September 2020

Mt resources

I've been spending my lockdown time going through some of the MT resources. They're really good and there are some very useful things that I've been looking at. I wondered whether there is a full catalogue or searchable list, detailing the resources by KS/VMT/Topic/etc? It would be really helpful if there were such a thing!

David Beeby, Head of Music, Poole Grammar School

Thanks for your feedback. Unfortunately the resources are not currently searchable. However, we are due to launch a new website, which will have these capabilities. The resources are listed here: https://www.rhinegold.co.uk/rhinegold-publishing/magazines/music-teacher/mt-online-teaching-materials/

ABRSM exams

For 20 years I have taught piano and music theory, loyally sending my students to take ABRSM exams. Over the last few years, the standard of these exams has been watered down. They have become unrecognisable from the exams I took in the early 1990s. Now, with the changes to online assessments for music theory Grades 1-5, my patience has finally snapped.

Outsourcing these exams to US-based company PSI seems to have been a decision made by a management team that has no experience of teaching music. There are so many problems: safeguarding issues (especially for children); digital exclusion for poorer candidates; privacy violation and the opportunities for identity theft or fraud; and an overall sense of unfairness to both students and teachers to drop paper-based exams in the UK at short notice. Even if candidates aren't automatically failed at the start of the exam for having incompatible technology, there are still many opportunities to fail due to internet connectivity issues, power cuts, or simply needing to go to the toilet. I will shortly be moving my students to LCM instead. I know that I cannot be alone in my disgust.

Since ABRSM has chosen to use UK candidates as guinea pigs for its online experimental assessments, I wonder if this format will actually be adopted anywhere else? It appears to violate EU data protection laws and I cannot see any sensible government allowing children to be subjected to this ludicrous system. Asking children to web chat with a stranger, having their image scanned while they hold up government-issued photo ID, such as a passport, and then tracking them through their webcam and microphone is cyberstalking. It is normally the sort of activity that is investigated by the police, not introduced as a public examination format.

ABRSM has snuck these changes in quietly, using the current problems with the pandemic as an excuse to introduce this rushed plan, seeming with no regard to its full ramifications. It took 131 years to build ABRSM's formerly good reputation. It has only taken a few poor decisions to throw that away. Yours in frustration, Catherine Bowe

MT contacted ABRSM for a response. Their statement is provided here in full:

ABRSM is working to make music learning reflect the way we live today by applying the same commitment to quality and care that has always characterised our work with children and young people.

The new Grade 5 Theory exam launching in August is a key part of this and will give learners, including those preparing to apply to further education, the flexibility they tell us they need to progress with their music. Work on the examination has been underway for some time but was accelerated by our specialist exam development team to support learners at this challenging time.

The safeguarding of children has been, and remains, absolutely paramount and we demand that our partners uphold the same stringent safeguarding and data security standards that we abide by. PSI has extensive experience of providing online examinations, and, through our due diligence and selection process, we are utterly confident of their ability to observe these fundamental principles.

Children do not have to be left unattended, they are not monitored ‘live’ and the process does not violate data protection law, anywhere. The processes to prove identity and check the exam environment are in keeping with what is necessary and proportionate to ensure the reliability of the exam.

It is true that the examination model is radically different to anything else we have done before, and we are proud of it.

We have worked diligently to open up access to students eager to take the exam as soon as possible.

However, while we know that the online exam will be more easily accessible for tens of thousands of learners, we also know that it will not work for everyone.

It is a central tenet of our approach to music education that we continually explore ways to improve access and lower barriers to our musical progress. We are absolutely committed to making sure that no learner is left out and are working to ensure that this is the case.