Keith Metcalfe is the head of Malvern College, a prestigious learning institution founded in 1865 whose notable alumni include the novelist C. S. Lewis, Newsnight star Jeremy Paxman, and even Gardener’s World’s Monty Don. “Handwriting has largely disappeared everywhere except for school, making it seem very antiquated to still be going to an exam room with a pen and paper,” he commented, noting that allowing typed papers to be used would “improve fairness and accessibility for all”.
He’s not the first person to highlight the link between handwritten examinations and accessibility – The British Dyslexia Association also has advocated the switch-over of UK examinations into an easy digital format.
Metcalfe isn’t a proponent of replacing all handwriting with typing in a learning environment – indeed, during his own lessons, he allows pupils to type their work but requires homework to be handwritten. But he cites the effects of the pandemic on learning as a major catalyst behind why now is the right time to take the initiative and make a change:
“A series of national lockdowns has seen the education sector adapting to online learning and more modern teaching practises… As a whole it has stepped up to this challenge and found a way of using the best that technology has to offer to reach children and maintain their learning in most trying circumstances. As we use technology, we write less, we lose writing speed and legibility, and it becomes tiring; we are not able to express ideas so quickly or effectively – key elements of garnering success in exams. Modern education includes a focus on technology, and yet to do this appears to harm our pupils’ performance in exams where handwritten answers are required.”
The move towards digital learning is largely agreed to have had a positive effect on people with dyslexia, and made it much easier for their literacy differences to be supported via text-to-speech and customisable reading interfaces. However there are arguments that the science of handwriting makes some valuable links between writing things down and memory retention that could make exams a little more tricky. The act of handwriting things like homework and coursework is also hailed by educators as a large deterrent when it comes to plagiarism.
With January exams on the horizon, the switch to digital is certainly something to think about.
You can find out more at Independent Education Today.