Pupils ‘not ready’ for normal exams
Covid and cost of living crisis mean concessions should stay in place, say academy trust leaders
PUPILS preparing to take their GCSES and A-levels next year are not ready to face pre-pandemic exam conditions, the bosses of some of the biggest academy trusts have warned.
Weeks before a decision is due from Ofqual, the exam watchdog, on next year’s grade boundaries and whether to offer continued exam support for pupils, three trust leaders have intervened to call for exams to remain easier.
Rebecca Boomer-clark, chief executive of AET, which runs almost 60 academies, said it was important to recognise both the impact of Covid and “cost of living pressures” on pupils.
“Most people agree that it’s in nobody’s interest to have sustained grade inflation, so it’s important to have a plan to get back to ‘normal’ standards,” she said. “However, we cannot just ignore the impact of the past two to three years and the reality that the impact of both Covid and the ongoing cost of living pressures have not been felt equally across the country.”
Pupils collecting their GCSE and A-level results this month sat the first exams in three years but benefited from more lenient marking than in 2019.
They were also given advance information in some exams and formulae and equations sheets for some tests, in recognition of the disruption caused to their learning by pandemic restrictions. The Government has pledged to return to 2019 exam conditions after teacher assessments led to record grade inflation during the pandemic. However, the watchdog is reviewing whether to fully return to pre-pandemic standards next year.
Ms Boomer-clark said: “It seems sensible to explore retaining some adaptations to examinations as we return towards 2019 grade boundaries again.”
Tom Campbell, chief executive of E-act, which oversees 28 academies, said that a return to “normal” conditions would reveal “the true disadvantage” experienced by pupils from deprived backgrounds and “expose even greater inequalities”.
He said: “While we should absolutely not compromise on standards, policymakers need to give serious thought to further concessions for some pupil groups akin to the arrangements this year. This might include keeping under review the volume of content for some courses, and advanced materials prior to exam season for the foreseeable future.”
He added that the publication of school performance data, which has been scrapped since the start of the pandemic, should not be immediately resumed.
Mohsen Ojja, deputy chief executive of Mossbourne Federation, which runs four academies in London, said: “We must not lose sight of the fact that 2023’s Year 13s will not have sat GCSE exams, and when they go into that exam hall for their A-levels it will be the very first time they have faced public exams and all the pressure that goes with that.
“So there is a case to be made for gradually reducing grade inflation over the next two years, rather than going back to 2019 next summer.”
However, Prof Geraint Jones, of the National Institute of Teaching and Education, said it was time to return to normal exam conditions.
“While grading arrangements this year, rightly, acknowledged the extraordinary impact of the pandemic on assessment and, crucially, on students’ learning, by next summer most students will have had two years of ‘normal’ education,” he said. “That’s the equivalent length of a GCSE or A-level course and so there is no real reason not to bring grades into line with previous levels.”
Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the Independent Schools Council, said he would prefer to see exams return to prepandemic conditions next year, “as long as the amount of Covid disruption remains low”.
He said: “We have to remember that the students getting their results today know less than those who took GCSES in 2019. I would like all pupils to know as much as their 2019 predecessors.”