A-Level and GCSE students should be able to type exam answers as writing is ‘too tiring’

Students spend so much time typing that they find themselves unable to ‘express their ideas so proficiently’ when forced to take up a pen for exams, a headmaster has said.

Malvern College’s Keith Metcalfe is arguing for GCSEs and A Level candidates to have the option of typing up their exam scripts, calling a reliance on pen and ink ‘antiquated’.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Mr Metcalfe believes that ‘long periods of handwriting can become increasingly tiring’ for students and typing boosts ‘fairness and accessibility for all’.

‘Those who spend more time touch-typing can lose speed and clarity of handwriting and thus are not able to express their ideas so proficiently in exams where handwritten answers are required’, he was reported as saying by the Telegraph.

‘I am not sure this is fair or whether it achieves what a modern education should deliver. In fact, handwriting has largely disappeared everywhere except for school, making it seem very antiquated to still be going into an exam room with a pen and paper.’

Malvern College, in Worcestershire, was established in 1865 and educated the likes of CS Lewis and Aleister Crowley. Boarders are charged over £13,000 per term.

He added: ‘I am sure good schools will continue to have an important focus on handwriting, but simply to do this in order to prepare pupils for exams seems a little backward,’ he added.

‘We need to equip children with the skills they will need for the world they will enter after they leave school.

‘That doesn’t mean handwriting is not important or that we want to see it as a lost art but it has already become less relevant in terms of careers, both now and in the future.’

Students with recognised problems are already permitted to use laptops to type up their answers in exams.

Students with recognised problems are already permitted to use laptops to type up their answers in exams (stock image)