GCSE and A-level exams delayed: Has Gavin Williamson learnt his lesson?

It’s no surprise that, after all the chaos of this summer’s exams, the government has announced a delay to next year’s GCSE and A-Levels, but is the extra three weeks they’ve allocated really enough?

Last Monday (12th October) Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, announced plans for a three-week delay to the national GCSE and A-Level exams. This would see the main season start from the 7th June rather than the usual mid-May, in an effort to make up for lost teaching time during the lockdown earlier this year. The government is hoping that these extra weeks, plus a ‘£1 billion catch-up programme and the changes proposed by Ofqual’ will be enough to level the playing field between different students’ academic experiences during the pandemic. But how much impact will it really make?

Not much, according to some students at a grammar school in South West London. They told me that it wouldn’t be as beneficial, as their school did well to keep up with the exam content during lockdown. Indeed, one commented that they are “a bit annoyed that they are [now] pushed back” as it now leads to a shorter summer holiday. This is probably a view shared at many high-performing schools across the country, where the resources to provide high-quality online teaching were available during the lost months. But for those where such benefits were not enjoyed, perhaps those three extra weeks will prove more vital.

Catch up cash

Indeed, the government has committed a COVID-19 catch up fund  consisting of a £650 million catch-up premium to help support all pupils and also a £350 million National Tutoring programme specifically for disadvantaged students. However these provisions seem to be in place as a response to the damage already inflicted by the pandemic, with only a vague suggestion of any ‘back-up plans’ for if the situation were to take yet another turn for the worse. And so far there is nothing in place to specifically tackle any hardship students may face in the coming months as a result of the current rules on self-isolation.

Symptomatic vs non-symptomatic

Already many schools are sending home large numbers of their populations following positive Covid-19 cases, as part of an effort to limit further spread. Schools have been identifying those students and staff members who may have been ‘within two metres of someone who has tested positive for Covid-19 for more than 15 minutes’ or ‘within one metre for one minute or longer without face-to-face contact’ and asking them to self isolate for 14 days.

Whilst the schools minister, Nick Gibbs has said that ‘whenever a pupil or member of staff show symptoms, they will be asked to return home and then to take a test’ and ‘given priority in the testing regime’, this priority is only for those displaying symptoms, not for those who may have been sent home as per government advice. As a result, many students are facing periods of self-isolation and online teaching whilst being non-symptomatic. This online teaching can not only differ widely across different schools, but also in the event that only some of a year group in an individual school are sent home, there could be inconsistencies in the quality of teaching received by students in the same lessons.

A self-isolation cycle

There is even potential for situations where a student or teacher may be sent home for two weeks to self-isolate after close contact with a positive case, and then return to school, only to come into close contact with another confirmed case and be sent home again. Such disruption would surely cause severe distress to both students, and also any teachers whose teaching of potentially an entire cohort would be compromised. And the affected party wouldn’t be able to access a test to break this cycle as they wouldn’t be displaying symptoms.

Schools which faced particular disruption and a lack of resources at the beginning of the pandemic are likely to only further suffer under these rules. Sarah Mulholland of the Northern Powerhouse lobbying group said schools in the north of England ‘are the most likely to have been impacted by school closures following year group bubbles of pupils having to be sent home.’

Rest of the UK

In comparison, Scotland’s Education Secretary, John Swinney, announced the country’s decision to cancel National 5 qualifications at the beginning of October, commenting that to go ahead with all exams was ‘too big a risk’. These exams, which roughly equate to GCSEs in the rest of the UK, would now be based on ‘teacher judgement supported by assessment’. However Highers, which are used for university admissions, will still go ahead, albeit at a delayed date.

Northern Ireland Education Minister, Peter Weir, also announced their plans to proceed with GCSE examinations at a delayed start date, but with a reduction in content in most subjects, barring Maths and English language. Again, however, most AS and A-level courses will remain unmodified apart from a few changes to practical assessments and field work.

Results Day delay

In addition to the delay to exams, Gavin Williamson also announced a delay to GCSE and A-level results day, to the 27th and 24th August respectively. This would see A-level results day approximately a week later than usual. It is unclear how this delay may affect the university admissions process, with the clearing system, which is used by many students who find out on results day that they have underperformed, operating over a shorter period of time.

With the situation surrounding the pandemic uncertain, in some cases this will leave students with just over a week to make crucial decisions about their futures. The universities minister has already said that ‘universities could change their autumn term dates if they needed to accommodate school exams being pushed back’, but with this government’s previous record on promises in this field, confidence is low.

A lesson learnt?

Indeed, there was a consensus amongst the teachers who spoke to me that, whilst the government seems confident with these adjustments, many students will still struggle with the workload and reduced learning time. Some were convinced that grade boundaries will once again be low, in an attempt to counterbalance any poor performances by this year’s cohort as a result of the pandemic.

Moreover, some schools have increased internal testing this year in order to build more evidence for an individual student’s potential; a lesson learnt from last year. Only time will tell if, after this year’s chaos, the government has also revised enough.

Aarthee Pari

Featured image courtesy of Annie Spratt on Unplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.