47% pass rate the fault of ADIs say DVSA
A petition calling for Driving Instructors to be able to pass pupils, has reached nearly 48,000 signatures. Presumably a small sample of number of people who have had enough of the constant mismanagement and messing about by the DVSA. Anyway its finally had a response.
Now the petition has no chance of succeeding, and we don't agree with the premise anyway, which would be disastrous for road safety, however an interesting thing came out of the reply:
Apparently, the pass rate on driving tests is all down to ADIs who don't have a clue what they're doing!:
"Although ADIs are well qualified and proficient in driving and instruction, they are not experienced assessors, and this is evidenced by the current practical test pass rate of 47%."
Clearly another area any enquiry needs to investigate fully is how this pass rate has been maintained for at least ten years which is statistically impossible!
A BBC news report on the new driving test in 2018 stated:
"That does mean the percentage of passes has dropped below 46% for the first time since 2010, but it's not that far below the full 2017 average pass rate of 46.8%. In fact, over the past 10 years, it has always hovered at around the same mark, give, or take a percentage point"
Could it be perhaps that the real reason is that the DVSA artificially maintain the pass rate at just under 50%, not by any mysterious quotas but just by tweaking the assessment criteria used by examiners.
Could one clear example of this be why things that were marked as faults on the driving test years ago aren't any more, we wonder?
In the 21st century, any responsible organisation should be completely transparent, unlike the DVSA hides behind supposed FOI exemptions to conceal how it maintains the test pass rate, how it uses test data to quality assure examiners, and how it uses test data to manage Standards Checks.
NASP as usual does nothing,so it will be interesting to see what response if any as "your industry trade association" they make to the DVSAs comments.
More Test Bungling
The DVSA aren't even making a pretence of keeping any kind of order in the rescheduled tests this time around.
We are seeing increasing reports that candidates with upcoming tests in late January for example are behind recheduled after those candiates who had tested booked in Februrary.
PDIs?
Well sorry you've just been left swinging in the wind, the DVSA and NASP couldn't care less, although there is a petition here to extend the the 2 year limit: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/566905 which if it reaches 10,000 will no doubt get a another two fingered reply from the DVSA.
Individual petitions to force the DVSA to do something will fail, they are always ignored as the Dft just refers them back to the DVSA which then continue to promote their own agenda. The only alternative is this petition to the DfT to completely investigate the DVSA with a view to stripping it of all its responsibilities in the driver training sector. The DfT can hardly ask the DVSA to respond on it's behalf to a petition calling for it to be fully independently investigated.
Stay turned for our week of action - Please continue to send your complaints about NASP to the Advertising Standards Authority, and we'll be publishing templates and details to write directly to your MP about DVSA to further the cause.
Thank you to everyone that has signed so far, lets make 2021 the last year the DVSA exists.