Commenting on the announcement of
subject content and assessment arrangements for
2022/23, Kevin
Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education
Union,
said:
"Given the government’s overall policy
of ‘living with Covid’ it is unsurprising that Ofqual has
announced an intention to return to full content coverage for
2023. Unlike for the past three summers, at least a decision
has been announced in advance of the academic year for 2022/23
and so NEU members will welcome some
certainty.
"However, the students taking exams in
summer 2023 have not been unaffected by the pandemic, and if the
last-minute decision making and lack of contingency planning for
exams has shown us anything it is that the status quo is not
something to desire a return to. There is high risk relying on
one short time period for all the assessment to take place,
never mind the mental health and wellbeing issues associated with
the entirety of a grade resting on a few cliff-edge weeks at the
end of a course.
"Ofqual and the government would do
well to learn lessons from the pandemic and realise that the sum
of what a student knows and can do can be more fairly assessed
than by asking them to write down what they remember about a two
or three-year course in 90 minutes one
summer.
"It is right that the Department for
Education and Ofqual have not ruled out the options of
implementing other mitigations later in theyear, but it is
again disappointing that advanced information about exam topics
is only seen as a revision tool. If pandemic disruption is such
that it impacts on teaching and learning time, as was the case
this year, then advanced information only in time for revision
and not to help with the lost teaching and learning, is far less
useful.”
