Commenting on yesterday's letter from the Education Select
Committee to on exams in
2020 and 2021, Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the
National Education Union, said:
“The National Education Union agrees with the Education Select
Committee’s conclusion that exams for 2021 must take account of
the differential impacts of access to education across the
country. Many students are having to access their learning
remotely due to the pandemic and do not have the adequate
equipment or resources necessary at home to do so. As such, it
would make for grossly unfair grades next summer if exams were to
take place on the full course content.
"For this reason, on October 2nd the NEU, along with other trade
unions and governor organisations, laid out proposals for
introducing optionality into exams. The suggestions made would
help account for some of the lost learning opportunities
experienced across the country and the different order that
schools and colleges would be teaching the various topics.
"Under these proposals students would answer questions on the
topics they have covered and not the ones they haven’t. There
would also be a system in place, as in other nations in the UK,
of grades based on moderated, evidence based judgements made by
schools and colleges, to ensure that whatever the state of the
virus next summer, all students can receive a grade which
reflects their own achievements.
"Whilst Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have all announced
measures to account for this unequal access to learning, the UK
government is still dithering over what to do in England. Time is
quickly running out for any meaningful changes that could give
students a fair chance at their exams next summer.
"It is also absolutely critical that Ofqual remain independent of
DfE. Whilst we agree with the Education Select Committee that
Ofqual should not have to follow ministerial steers when there
would be clear negative consequences, as was the case for grading
in summer 2020, we don’t agree that the conclusion is that there
are arguments for and against Ofqual’s independence.
"If anything, what the summer’s debacle shows is that Ofqual
should have far greater freedom to reject or push back on
unhelpful ministerial steers, particularly when they contradict
Ofqual’s fundamental duties, set out in legislation, about
protecting the fairness, reliability and public confidence in
grades.
"To lay the blame mainly at Ofqual’s door when they have laid out
the many warnings they gave to and DfE, is
wrong. Whilst Ofqual perhaps could and should have pushed back
more on the Secretary of State’s steers, it is this Government’s
obsession with rationing grades nationally over fairness for
individuals, and the ponderous inaction of , that was
the main cause of last summer’s chaos.
"The dither shown currently over what to do for next year is
demonstrating that Ministers have learnt very few lessons. The
same mistakes must not be made again and in order to restore
public confidence, changes to make exams in 2021 fairer are
critical.”
ENDS
Editor’s Note
(Chair) to , 10
November: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/3401/documents/32495/default/
ASCL, NAHT, NASUWT, NEU, NGA joint statement, 2 October: https://neu.org.uk/media/12446/view
