Commenting on the launch of the Department for Education's
consultation on the awarding of exam grades, Kevin Courtney, Joint
General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“There are still many questions left unanswered on the
publication of this consultation. In some ways that is a good
thing as it means education staff, students and parents can have
their say on which options to take. But these conversations
should have been taking place last year as it was obvious to all,
except , that we
needed to plan for this possibility. Many more options would have
been available if plans had been made earlier, and teachers and
students must not be held to blame for the failings of
government.
"NEU members and students may well be reassured by the idea of
externally created papers and questions, but unless these papers
have flexibility – to ensure that students only answer questions
on topics they have covered – then they will not produce fair
results.
"It is also imperative that these papers do not form the sum
total of the evidence upon which decisions about grades can be
based. It will be far more accurate to base grades on a range of
evidence and if government is genuine about trusting teachers
then they will allow them as professionals, to determine what
evidence is best to use.
"There seems to be large question marks around the suggested
appeals process and we will need to explore this further. Whilst
government may be clear that they wish students to have an appeal
route it would be utterly wrong for them to shift the strain of
this onto schools and colleges because of the fact they
themselves haven’t prepared earlier in the year for proper
external moderation.
"We welcome that written exams for VTQs will be paused from April
onwards, which takes a lot of the pressure off BTEC and Cambridge
National students and gives more certainty for them. It is also
important that where practical assessments can take place for
occupational competency, they should, if it's safe. Because of
the complexity of different vocational and technical awards,
their different purposes and assessment methods, it is even more
obvious that government has left thinking about this until too
late in the day. Suggesting that awarding organisations should
now be developing an approach to awarding qualifications where
there is insufficient evidence is too little too late, and is
letting down students and their teachers."
