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The decision on whether to delay next year’s GCSE and A-level exams in England will be made “very soon,” said schools minister Nick Gibb.
This is expected to be part of a larger strategy for how next summer’s exams will work when so many classes have been missed due to the pandemic.
In June, the government announced that exams were likely to be postponed later than usual in the summer.
Labor has asked that next summer’s exams be delayed.
Many pupils in England and Wales are returning to school this week, after the long interruption caused by the pandemic outbreak, and almost all schools are expected to teach all pupils full time.
Concerned parents
But a YouGov poll suggested that safety fears still existed, with 17% of parents “seriously considering” not returning their children.
The survey company has recorded growing confidence in sending students back, but this latest survey, as schools prepare to reopen, suggests a hard core of unconvinced parents.
Parents were more likely to support wearing masks at school, with 47% in favor and 36% against.
The back to school has raised concerns about what will happen to the A and GCSE levels next summer, when so much teaching time has been lost.
Gibb said a delayed start to the testing season was being considered, as had been proposed by education ministers earlier in the summer.
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“We have to take into account the other UK nations that also use GCSEs and A-levels on their mandate dates,” Gibb told the BBC.
“You have to take into account the time of qualification, make sure that the results are delivered by a certain date for college admissions, and so on.
“There are a wide variety of factors that the review boards, Ofqual and the Department [for Education] we are looking, but we will make a decision very soon. “
‘Playing on the edges’
In June, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told MPs that he would consult with Ofqual, England’s testing regulator, on “how we can roll back those tests, giving children extra time to learn.”
Ofqual has suggested that relatively little change will be needed in terms of what is taught for the exams, but lead principals Geoff Barton criticized this as “little more than minor tweaks.”
The ASCL principals union has called for a reduction in the scale of the content of the examination courses to account for the amount of teaching time that has been lost.
There have also been questions about what will happen if schools face local closures, and whether there will have to be a back-up plan for teachers’ predictions to be used again.
The Labor Party has called for the exams, which usually take place in May and June, to be delayed until mid-summer to help deal with the impact of the coronavirus.
On Monday, Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green said students who started Year 11 and 13 in September had “a mountain to climb” as they had missed months of schooling.
Scheduling exams for the end of next year would allow more teaching time to catch up, he said.
This year’s exams were haunted by chaos and left teachers, parents and students asking for a major rethinking of next summer’s exams.
Almost 40% of the A-level grades given to students using an algorithm were lower than teachers’ evaluations, and disadvantaged students were particularly affected.
Days after the results were announced, and after widespread criticism, the government took a 180-degree turn and decided to base the grades on the teachers’ recommendations.
As schools prepare for the start of the fall term, Mr. Gibb urged parents to send their children back to help them “catch up on missing education.”
When asked what would happen if a child at school had a cough, Gibb said that any student with symptoms of coronavirus would be sent home for testing.
If they test positive, all children and adults the child has come across will be tracked and asked to isolate themselves, he added, and a mobile test unit could be sent to the school to test others.
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