THE EXAM REGULATOR RESPONDS...
A SPOKESMAN for Qualifications Wales said: “In addition to all the measures in place that are designed to mitigate the ongoing impact of the pandemic, Qualifications Wales has written to further and higher education institutions to remind them of the challenges faced by Welsh learners.
“There have been a range of changes to this year’s exams and assessments to help learners focus their time. These vary across subjects and include changes to coursework, streamlined assessment content and removal of units.
“Where significant changes couldn’t be made, advance information has been shared as another way to help learners focus their revision. We know that some young people have been more affected than others over the past two years.
“Therefore, we have asked universities and colleges to fully consider the impact Covid has had on individual learners when making decisions about places on courses starting this autumn. The usual mechanism for appeals will be in place this summer and more information is available from the awarding bodies.”
The WJEC was approached for comment, but when asked about fairness for this year’s exams previously, the exam board has said: “We recognise that learners will have missed out on teaching and learning time due to the pandemic and have made a series of changes to the way GCSEs and AS/A-levels will be assessed in summer 2022.
“Following the announcement by Qualifications Wales that external assessments will go ahead, in July last year, we published a range of adaptations to our qualifications, which vary from subject to subject, but have included reduced assessment content, reduced NEA (non-exam assessment) requirements, and optional questions for some qualifications.
“For other subjects, where we couldn’t make significant changes, we’ve shared advance information as another way to help learners to
focus their revision.”
Teaching and learning resources have also been expanded to help teaching and revision, the board said.
“We are confident that the range of measures that we have put in place will help to mitigate the ongoing impact of the pandemic, ensuring that all assessments are balanced and fair and will enable learners to progress to the next level.
“Furthermore, Qualifications Wales has confirmed that results in 2022 will broadly reflect a midway point between 2021 and 2019 results, and this will be applied when we determine the grade boundaries.”