Teacher assessments to replace GCSE and A-level exams in England this summer

Updated 27 minutes ago

THIS YEAR’s GCSE, AS and A-level exams in England will be canceled and replaced by school assessments, confirmed Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.

Williamson told MPs that the British government will put its “trust in teachers, rather than algorithms.”

The Education Secretary said that tests are the “fairest way” to assess what a student knows, but said the impact of the pandemic meant that tests were not possible in the summer.

His comments in the House of Commons came after the British government announced that England’s schools and universities would remain closed until mid-February amid the new national shutdown.

The grades of GCSE and A-level students in England turned into a fiasco last summer when end-of-year exams were canceled amid school closures.

Thousands of A-level students saw their results downgraded from school estimates by a controversial algorithm, before Ofqual announced a U-turn, allowing them to use teacher predictions.

Speaking today, Williamson said that he wants to use a form of teacher-graded grades to award results instead of an algorithm.

This morning, the Department of Education said it recognizes that this is “an anxious time for students who have been working hard for their exams.”

In a televised speech Monday announcing England’s third national shutdown, Boris Johnson acknowledged that closing schools meant that “it is not possible or fair for all exams to go ahead this summer, as is normal.”