Why is Ofqual trying to dumb down English exams?

If you wanted a good working example of the concept of dumbing down in practice, look no further than Ofqual, the exams regulatory board, the one that covered itself in ignominy when it oversaw the exam algorithm fiasco during lockdown.

Its latest idea is to get exam boards for English to replace ‘complex’ language elements, such as idiom, sarcasm and metaphor, with simpler alternatives in some assessments to make the tests more accessible for pupils. The temptation at this point to respond with sarcasm, irony, idiom and metaphor – not at all nice ones either – is almost irresistible, but let’s not go there. How, in any language, but particularly one with the nuances and complexity of English, you can function without recourse to irony, sarcasm and metaphor, is beyond me. Presumably on Amazon rating sites they can do without any of these things, but for normal communication between sarcastic, ironic, idiomatic human beings, it’s not, I’d say, possible.