Proposed changes to next summer’s GCSEs and A-levels fail
to fully recognise the disruption to students of the coronavirus
pandemic and amount to no more than tinkering at the edges, the
Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said
today.
Even more worryingly, there is no back-up plan in the event
of further serious disruption which could make a full exam series
next summer impossible for students who have to self-isolate or
are affected by lockdowns.
ASCL has today submitted our response to a
consultation by exam regulator Ofqual on its proposals for exams
in 2021. We call for more radical changes to the exams to make
them fairer on students, as well as contingency plans if there
are local or national outbreaks of coronavirus.
Our response says:
-
Consideration should be given to increased choice within
exams over the questions that students can answer so that those
who have missed out on chunks of content because of coronavirus
disruption are less likely to be disadvantaged.
-
Consideration should also be given to approaches such as
open book exams in English, or formula sheets in maths and
science exams, to recognise that students will have had less
time to learn the large amount of content required.
-
We support the idea of moving the start of the exam
series next year from May to after the half term in June as
long as this does not affect the normal timing of results days
which take place in August.
· There should be a parallel
centre-assessed grading process, similar to that used in 2020,
which could be used to inform a student’s grades in the event of
them not being able to sit an exam as planned. This might involve
staged assessment opportunities, so that students could ‘bank’ a
proportion of their grade over the course of the year.
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of
School and College Leaders, said: “Ofqual’s proposals for next
summer’s exams seriously underplay the extent to which students
will have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and amount
to no more than tinkering at the edges.
“It isn’t going to be business as normal next academic
year. Students will be returning to schools and colleges in
September having missed a huge amount of time in the classroom.
It simply isn’t going to be possible for all students to cover
all the content in GCSEs and A-levels to the depth required.
Added to that is the likelihood of students having to
intermittently self-isolate and further lockdowns next academic
year which will make the situation even more challenging.
“Most worrying of all, is the complete absence of a
contingency plan in the event that large numbers of students are
unable to take exams next summer. It is bordering on reckless to
have no Plan B when we have literally experienced at first-hand
an actual national lockdown.
“The government and Ofqual really do need to think again
about the planning for next summer’s exams, hoping for the best,
but preparing for the worst.”
Read our full consultation
response here.
