Commenting on the exam results,
Niamh Sweeney, Deputy General
Secretary of the National Education
Union,
said:
“Congratulations to all students
receiving results today. This is the second time that the cohort
has experienced a disrupted set of major national qualifications.
The effort and resilience they have demonstrated to get to this
point today, supported by their parents, carers and teachers, is
a credit to them.
"Unfortunately, NEU members and
students have reported that the adaptations made to exams, which
were meant to mitigate the pandemic's disruption of face-to-face
learning, were insufficient. The students who have suffered
disproportionately greater disruption to learning are those from
the most disadvantaged backgrounds and so it is they who will be
hit hardest by the lack of sufficient mitigations to ensure
grades are fair. Both their learning and their ability to access
future study courses may be impacted.
"For some such students the disruption
of face-to-face learning amounted to six months or more. Yet,
despite this, in most subjects there was no slimming down or
prioritisation of topics by the government, merely an extensive
list of topics to guide revision. This list of topics was
released just 11 teaching weeks before the exam period, and the
guidance was of little use to those who had been deprived of the
chance to study all their topics in the necessary
detail.
"It has been a third summer of
short-sighted negligence and students once again suffered as a
consequence. Their teachers made the best of the situation
but were forced to question why government so often prefers
to bury its head in the sand until it is absolutely
necessary to act.
"While this operational decision has
imposed stress on teachers and students, there are also major
long-term problems with our exam system. Expecting two or three
years’ worth of teaching to be completed before all
assessments are taken creates a dangerous single point of success
or failure which impacts on students' wellbeing. Even without
disruption, exams alone fail to tell employers or universities
about the wide breadth of skills and abilities a student might
possess.
"There is a broad consensus that
assessment practices in England need urgent reform. NEU members
alongside parents, students, employers, policy makers from across
the political spectrum and academics produced the report of the
Independent Assessment Commission, calling for change. The Times
Education Commission, which also reported earlier this year and
included former Prime Ministers, likewise called for an end to
exam-only assessment."
"Government must listen to this loud
and unified message. They should look to spread assessment risk
by not having just one cliff-edge assessment window and allow
students to demonstrate all they are capable of, beyond the
memorisation of facts. This could be achieved by using broader
more intelligent assessment methods such as presentations and
portfolios of work, rather than relying solely on
exams.
"There are fantastic examples of
successful, rigorous, well-regarded qualifications which already
do this. However rather than looking to learn from and spread
this good practice of mixed modular assessment, government is
wrongly ploughing ahead with reforms which will remove funding
for many vital applied general qualifications such as BTECs and
Cambridge Technicals.
"This is a high-risk, unnecessary move
which could ruin access both to Level 3 qualifications and higher
education for many students: we would urge government to listen
to the sector, protect student choice and not continue with the
de-funding of these important
qualifications."
