School exam system: how the boards work

The WJEC, the Welsh Joint Education Committee, is one of five main exam boards for GCSEs and A-levels. Although it is based in Wales and offers Welsh-language exams, the majority of its papers are sat in English schools: 5,155 English schools and colleges are registered with the board, compared with just 468 in Wales. The board had 600,000 GCSE entries this summer, 350,000 of which were by pupils in England. There are also a total of 190,000 entries for the WJEC's AS- and A-levels each year. For schools in Wales, the WJEC also provides the Welsh baccalaureate, which is taught in both English and Welsh to pupils aged 14-19. With over 3.5m exams every year, AQA, the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, is the largest exam board in the UK. The board had more than 2.5m GCSE entries this year, accounting for 49% of all GCSEs. 42% of A-levels are also provided by the board. The board's exams, which include vocational qualifications, are sat in more than 7,000 schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The exam board had 376,033 A-level entries this summer. Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR) had more than 1m GCSE entries this summer, sat by 573,266 candidates. Nearly 15,000 education centres are registered with the exam board, with 10% of its exams being sat by pupils from private schools. Edexcel is the other big exam board, offering vocational BTEC qualifications as well as GCSEs and A-levels. The board had more than 1.4m GCSE entries this summer and 605,000 A-level entries. Almost all of its exams are taken in England. In Northern Ireland, exams are also provided by the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) . The board had 148,239 GCSE entries this summer. A public body, it also advises the government on education. Around 300 schools and colleges run GCSEs, A-levels and BTECs set by this exam board.