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I'm delighted to welcome you today to Robinson College for the fourth Cambridge Assessment Network Conference.

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The theme of the conference is Issues of Innovation and Control, the role of the state in assessment systems.

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And we'll have the opportunity with experts from all over the world to explore the theme in depth

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and to consider the implications in a period of massive policy change.

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bye

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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2009 Cambridge Assessment Conference.

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My name is Paul Newton and I'm the director of the Cambridge Assessment Network.

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The conference is very timely at the moment because legislation is passing concerning regulation.

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critical that we get stakeholders together to discuss these issues.

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Ultimately the conference title reduces to that simple question, whose education system

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is it? Does it belong to government? Does it belong to the people?

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What I'm going to do this afternoon is actually start at the extreme peculiarity of our arrangements

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and I would have to say in my view unfitness for purpose, unfitness for purpose of the way

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that we currently intervene at state level in education assessment.

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The state we're in means that state education is indeed funded by the taxpayer

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and therefore certain interests of the taxpayer and the public

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public goods that education represents, need to be safeguarded by the state. That's entirely

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acceptable and understandable. The worry is that overreaching regulation will stifle

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innovation in the system.

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you