Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of whether GCSE and A-level examinations will take place without disruption in academic year 2021-22.

The Government has made clear its firm intention that exams will take place in summer 2022. Exams are the fairest way of judging pupils’ performance. The Department has engaged with a wide range of stakeholders who have all called for exams to go ahead.

There is continued uncertainty about the path of the COVID-19 outbreak, including whether further disruption to education may occur over the course of the 2021/22 academic year. Even if some public health restrictions were to be needed over the coming academic year, the Department believes it will be possible for pupils to take exams safely, but we recognise the need to have plans in place for the unlikely event that that is not possible.

The Department is working with Ofqual, exam boards, and representatives of schools and colleges to ensure that contingency arrangements are in place for scenarios where exams cannot be held for any reason, or where individual pupils are unable to sit exams due to illness or self-isolation. The Department will announce the detail of these contingency plans in the autumn term.

The Department also recognises that pupils who will be taking exams in summer 2022 have had disruption to their education in the last two academic years. Whilst we believe it is in pupils’ interests that they cover as much of the curriculum as possible, we also recognise that in order to be fair, exams in 2022 will need to be adapted to take this disruption into account.  The Department has recently consulted jointly with Ofqual on a range of adaptations to exams. We are currently considering the responses to that consultation and will announce final decisions shortly.