Commenting on Labour’s call for the government to set out plans
for assessments in 2022 by the return to school on 1 September,
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and
College Leaders, said:
“Schools and colleges need clarity by September about the plans
for next summer’s exams so that they know what to teach their
exam-year students.
“These young people have suffered huge educational disruption to
widely differing extents and adjustments will be needed to GCSEs,
A-levels and other qualifications in 2022.
“The most obvious adjustment is to provide advance notice of
topic areas in exams so that learning can be focused accordingly
and students don’t end up having to answer questions on something
that they haven’t covered in sufficient depth.
“But schools and colleges obviously need to know when and what
advance notice might be given so that they can plan accordingly,
and after 15 months of disruption students deserve to know what
to expect.
“They also need to know what a ‘Plan B’ might look like in case
exams aren’t able to go ahead as planned for a third year, so
that they can prepare for that possibility.
“The government’s record on providing clear plans in a timely
manner has not been good during the course of this crisis and it
must not let this matter drift.”
