By Gavin Mackintosh-
Ofqual has confirmed how it plans to award marks to G.C.S.E and A level pupils this year in the wake of school closures.
Exam regulator, Ofqual, has today announced that they will work with teachers to provide grades to students whose exams have been cancelled this summer, following our actions to slow the spread of coronavirus. University representatives have confirmed that they expect universities to be flexible and do all they can to support students and ensure they can progress to higher education.
This year’s summer exam, including A levels, GCSEs and other qualifications, including all primary assessments have been cancelled as we fight to stop the spread of coronavirus. The British government says its priority is to ensure affected students can move on as planned to the next stage of their lives, including going into employment, starting university, college or sixth form courses, or an apprenticeship in the autumn.
INDISTINGUISHABLE
Grades will be handed over to students before the end of July. They will be “indistinguishable from those provided in other years”, and pupils will have a chance to resit an exam if they don’t think the grade is fair. Ofqual will develop and set out a process that will provide a calculated grade to each student which reflects their performance as fairly as possible, and will work with the exam boards to ensure this is consistently applied for all students.
The exam boards will be asking teachers, who know their students well, to submit their judgement about the grade that they believe the student would have received if exams had gone ahead. Teachers will be required to consider evidence including performance on mock exams and non-exam assessment.
Ofqual said “clear guidance on how to do this fairly and robustly this will be provided to schools and colleges”.
“The exam boards will then combine this information with other relevant data, including prior attainment, and use this information to produce a calculated grade for each student, which will be a best assessment of the work they have put in.” Ofqual and exam boards “will be discussing with teachers’ representatives before finalising an approach, to ensure that it is as fair as possible. More information will be provided as soon as possible.”
Ofqual said it will also “aim to ensure that the distribution of grades follows a similar pattern to that in other years, so that this year’s students do not face a systematic disadvantage as a consequence of these extraordinary circumstances.”
If pupils “do not believe the correct process has been followed” then they can appeal. If they don’t feel their calculated grade reflects their performance pupils can also resit an exam “at the earliest reasonable opportunity, once schools are open again. Students will also have the option to sit their exams in summer 2021.”
Education secretary Gavin Williamson said:
“Cancelling exams is something no Education Secretary would ever want to do, however these are extraordinary times and this measure is a vital but unprecedented step in the country’s efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus.
“My priority now is to ensure no young person faces a barrier when it comes to moving onto the next stage of their lives – whether that’s further or higher education, an apprenticeship or a job.
“I have asked exam boards to work closely with the teachers who know their pupils best to ensure their hard work and dedication is rewarded and fairly recognised.”
However Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the details leave “many questions unanswered”.
However, he said teachers are the “experts in their subjects, they know these qualifications inside out, they know their students, and they have the professional skills to assess them accurately.
“We do not subscribe to the notion that exams are the only credible way of assessing qualifications, and this is an opportunity to at least point the way to a less brutal system.”