COVID-19 CRISIS: TEACHERS POISED

Axe exams, says ex-Ofsted chief

FRESH calls were made to scrap exams in England as an ex-Ofsted boss accused the Tories of sleepwalking into another shambles.

Former chief schools inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said A-levels and GCSEs should already have been axed as thousands of exam-year pupils had missed classes.

But while end-of-year exams in Scotland and Wales have been ditched, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson insists they will still take place in England.

Sir Michael, who served from 2012 to 2016, said: “Exams this summer should have been cancelled but I think it’s too late now.

“They’ve pinned their colours to the mast very firmly on this one. It would be an embarrassing U-turn.

“If I was a headteacher in a high-infection area with staff and children regularly off, I would be saying to the Government ‘how on Earth can these children be well prepared for an exam in five months?’ The other home nations have cancelled exams, but this Government is not going to do that.

“For Williamson to make another U-turn on top of the other U-turns he has made would be very embarrassing for him, the Department of Education and the Government.”

Mr Wilshaw added there was no sign of a “plan B” if Covid means that exams eventually do have to be axed as happened last year.

He said: “What they should be doing is putting in really robust contingency arrangements. But they haven’t done that.”

“Sadly, this is a department of short-termism and last minutery.”