Headteachers today accused the Government of “cobbling together” GCSE and A-level exam alternatives, saying they had been calling for a Plan B for months.
The Department for Education (DfE) and exam regulator Ofqual launched a two-week consultation last Friday after it was announced that this summer’s exams were cancelled. Under discussion are plans for mini exams to help with teacher grading.
The U-turn came despite Education Secretary Gavin Williamson still insisting in December that summer 2021’s exams would “absolutely” go ahead.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said there had been “immense frustration” over the Government’s “failure” to have a stress-tested Plan B ready to go in case exams had to be cancelled.
He said: “We have been calling for such a Plan B for many months, and offered to work with the DfE and Ofqual to help put together robust contingency arrangements. There is now an almighty rush going on to try to cobble together a system of assessing students in lieu of exams, which will then have to be communicated and implemented in an increasingly short time frame.”
Some students in England may be asked to sit mini external exams to help teachers with their assessments.
It was also suggested today that A-level results day could be brought forward to July and personal statements banned from university applications in a bid to make the system fairer for disadvantaged teenagers.
An Ofqual spokesman said: “We have been planning for different scenarios for some time. The plan if schools closed in January would, for example, be different from the plan if schools closed in March, as students would be closer to the end of their course.
“There are no obvious or straightforward solutions, no matter how attractive they may sound.”
