Assessments

(asked on 21st July 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department plans to take to help ensure that there is an equitable system of assessments for qualifications in 2022.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 7th September 2021

The Department’s firm intention is that exams and other formal assessments should go ahead in 2022.

The Department recognises that those pupils taking exams next year have had disruption to their education because of COVID-19. Together with Ofqual, we are proposing adaptations to the exams and formal assessments to take that disruption into account.

The Department recently carried out a joint consultation with Ofqual on GCSEs, AS and A levels, seeking views on our proposed changes to exams in summer 2022. These include choices about the content pupils will be assessed on for some GCSE subjects, and providing advance information about the focus of exam content for other GCSE subjects, and all AS and A levels. The Department is currently considering the consultation’s responses and will announce its decisions shortly.

The Department also carried out a joint consultation with Ofqual on vocational, technical, and other general qualifications (VTQs). We set out the Department’s policy position and the scope of adaptations to assessments and qualifications that may be necessary to address the ongoing effect of COVID-19 in the 2021/22 academic year and consulted on the equalities effect of this policy. Ofqual consulted on the necessary changes to the Vocational and Technical Qualifications Contingency Regulatory Framework to update it for the 2021/22 academic year. The Government published its response on 6 August 2021.

In deciding on the approach to grading next year, the Department will be asking Ofqual to be as fair as possible to pupils taking qualifications in future years, and to those who took them in previous years. Ofqual will announce its planned approach to grading in the autumn term.

The Government has invested over £3 billion in a package of measures to support education recovery, including tutoring, summer schools and mental health support, as well as further training and development for teachers. This will help to ensure that exams and formal assessments in 2022 are as fair as possible.

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