Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment has he made of the potential merits of combining public exams with moderated course work.

The department, together with Ofqual, has put a package of measures in place to recognise the disruption that this year’s students have faced. GCSE and A level students had advanced information on the focus of their exams in most subjects to support revision. Students also benefitted from other changes to exams, including choices of topic or content, and exam aids for some subjects at GCSE. This package of adaptations, combined with Ofqual’s approach to grading this year, provides unprecedented support to maximise fairness and help students reach their potential.

Schools are responsible for preparing young people for examinations and will have pastoral and other support in place to help pupils deal with any worries or concerns they might have throughout the exam period.

Exams provide a shared understanding of what students know and can do, an even playing field with everyone being assessed on the same thing at the same time. For this reason, non-examined assessment and coursework is used in GCSEs and A levels only where knowledge, skills and understanding cannot be tested validly by an exam. GCSEs and A levels were reformed from 2011 to be in line with the highest performing education systems and we have no plans for further wholesale reform.