Are Examinations Going Ahead?

Following months of disruption and with the Government’s position lacking clarity, students have been left confused. What has been confirmed as of yet?

Welsh A-levels, AS Levels, and GCSEs have been cancelled for students wishing to take exams in 2021. Instead, they shall receive teacher-assessed grades to “ensure fairness”, according to Welsh Education Minister Kirsty Williams. Maybe this will pressure England to follow suit?

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has affirmed that GCSEs and A-Levels will be taken in England with changes determined by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulations (Ofqual). Most exams will begin on the 7th of June and end on the 2nd of July, delayed by three weeks. Similarly, results will be released later, for A-Level students on the 24th of August and for GCSE students on the 27th of August. One Maths and one English paper are to be taken at earlier days.

A similar approach has been taken by the Northern Irish education Minister, Peter Weir, who has stated his intention to “ensure public examinations go ahead if at all possible”. Consequently, Northern Irish GCSEs, AS levels, and A-Levels will commence a week later than usual, beginning on the 12th of May but still ending by the 30th of June. To make up for lost teaching time many GCSE students will not be tested on a unit of their course, and any speaking elements will be omitted.

Perhaps they should consider following the example of the Scottish Education Secretary John Swinney, who has cancelled National 5 exams, roughly equivalent to GCSEs. Instead, grades will be based upon teacher assessments. However, Highers, which are similar to A-Levels, will not be cancelled due to their role in university admissions.

Caution must be taken. Last summer all exams were replaced by predicted grades. Teachers submitted Centre Assessment Grades, predicted using classwork, teacher-assessments, and mock exam results. Initially, a standardisation model created by Ofqual then outputted a ‘final’ grade. The algorithm used historic grades for each particular subject at each student’s school to work out a proportion of students that matched those who received prior grades, roughly handing out grades based on a student’s rank within their year group. After A-Level grades were awarded students were outraged. Although 27.9 per cent of results were grade As, 40 per cent of all predicted grades were downgraded, especially penalising those whose schools tend to receive low grades. Many appeared to have missed university offers and there were calls for the Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson, to resign.

Fortunately, in time for GCSE results day on the 17th of August, Ofqual announced that the standardisation process for AS Levels, A-Levels, and GCSEs would be discarded in favour of Centre Assessed Grades. The initial AS and A-Level grades were revised and BTECs were also regraded. These grades were to be final unless one could prove that a processing error had been made. Students were given the opportunity to resit AS and A-Level exams in October and GCSEs in November.

The decision the Government will have to make regarding examinations will prove challenging and will come under great scrutiny by those that it concerns.

Originally published on the 10th of November 2020 at 'https://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/youngreporter/18861497.examinations-going-ahead-hasan-zaidi/'.