Commenting on the passing of motion 7 at the National Education
Union’s Annual Conference, which is being held virtually, Dr Mary
Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union,
said:
“The pandemic has exposed the flaws that exist when awarding GCSE
and A-Level grades even in a normal year. Relying on assessment
which takes place entirely at the end of the course and via just
one method – examinations – is exceptionally high-risk and does
not enable all students to demonstrate what they know and can do.
Neither does awarding grades based on how a student has performed
in comparison to others. This must change. Students surely
deserve to be rewarded on the basis of their own merits.
“Having called on government to review this system, to no avail,
the NEU is supporting an independent commission on assessment and
qualifications, chaired by Professor Louise Hayward of the
University of Glasgow, and looking to meet the future needs of
students, teachers, our economy and our society.
“The government would do well to learn from its mistakes of the
past two years, in which contingency planning was frankly
non-existent, and start preparing now for a fair method of
grading students in summer 2022. These students will also have
missed significant proportions of their course and therefore many
will not have had a chance to cover the full curriculum by the
time their exams are due. The earlier that preparations are made,
the fairer they will be for all.”
