Grades could be decided before next year’s exams
TEACHERS could be asked to submit predicted grades for pupils ahead of 2021 exams amid fears that thousands of pupils will not be able to take them.
School staff will be asked to draw up a rank order of pupils in each subject, and send this to exam boards, under plans the regulator is considering.
If a student is unable to attend an exam due to self-isolation or illness, the exam board would be able to award them a predicted grade partly based on the results of pupils above and below them in the rank order. “It is one idea on the table,” a source said. “If someone can’t sit the exam, you look at the pupils above and below. If student B misses a paper, you look at [the grades of ] student A and C and slot them in.”
The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) is working on contingency plans for students who miss some of their A-level or GCSES because they are self-isolating.
Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, has insisted that exams will go ahead as the “fairest way of judging a student’s performance” but concedes that these will need to be “underpinned by contingency measures”.
Downing Street officials are keen to avoid a repeat of this summer’s chaos, which saw a controversial algorithm ditched in favour of teachers’ predicted grades following a national outcry. Ministers want pupils to sit at least one exam for Maths and English GCSE, but are more relaxed about other subjects.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that officials are “fixated” on the contingency plans for missed exams. “The real problem isn’t the exam, it is how to make sure they have covered the content,” he said.
An Ofqual spokesman said: “We are considering a range of potential contingency options, alongside measures to maximise the opportunity for students to take their exams. We will say more before the end of the year.” The Department for Education is due to announce additional measures to address “potential disruption” later this autumn.