Government ‘refusal’ to plan resulted in exam chaos, says report

THE “refusal” to make contingency plans for this year’s exams has been the “most unforgivable” aspect of the Government’s mishandling of schools during the pandemic, a report has said.

Ministers did not learn lessons about school closures and exams following the first lockdown, which led to a case of “pause, rewind, repeat”, a paper by the Institute for Government (IFG) found.

Researchers described the first lockdown as “easily the most disruptive period in children’s education since at least the start of the Second World War”.

The report said: “Its most important conclusion is that the most unforgivable aspect of what happened is not just the failure to make contingency plans in the summer of 2020 but the refusal to do so – when it was already obvious that fresh school closures might well be needed, and that exams might have to be cancelled again.

“Lessons were not learnt from the first lockdown, with the result that, for both school closures and exams, the story from July 2020 to January 2021 was a case of ‘pause, rewind, repeat’.” It added: “Well into March 2021, and indeed beyond, pupils taking GCSES, A-levels and Btecs remained unclear about … how they were to be assessed. At times it felt as though the school system was in chaos.”

The report’s publication comes as thousands of students prepare to receive their A-level and GCSE results next week. The grades will be based on teachers’ predictions after exams were cancelled for the second year in a row.

The IFG report praises the “swift” decision to allow children of key workers and the most vulnerable youngsters to attend school during lockdowns.

Researchers also highlighted the tensions between Downing Street and the Department for Education throughout the pandemic, and the impact this had on disruption to children’s education.

Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, “appears not to have been directly involved in any of the key meetings ahead of the original decision to close schools in March 2020”.

The report goes on to say there was a “refusal” to trust local authorities and a failure to engage effectively with them, and their directors of public health.

Researchers noted the “dreadful communications” from the Government about schools as well as the “repeated declarations” on whether schools would open or close or whether exams would be held. “The result was U-turn after U-turn, with pupils, parents and teachers left bewildered and floundering time and again,” the report said.

Nicholas Timmins, the report’s author, said: “Some early decisions in England were taken well … But the failure – indeed, the refusal – to make contingency plans over the summer and autumn of 2020 left pupils, parents and teachers facing a case of ‘pause, rewind, repeat’, not least over exams.”