Different covid tiers will cause exam confusion

Different covid tiers will cause exam confusion

How do exam boards expect candidates to sit exams in the summer of 2021 with the different tiers closing schools at a different rate. National exams will be a chance thing. The most likely outcome is a coursework based assessment again. With all the disasters that this brought in the summer of 2020.

Schools in the different tiers areas say their exam candidates should not be penalised when they sit their exams.

Some schools in the North west have been closed for over 4 weeks.

Different levels of schools opening and closing in the covid lock down regions.

Of the 11 local authorities with secondary attendance at 75 per cent or lower, five are in tier 3, four are in tier 2 (with talks of upgrading imminent) and two are in tier 1.

Mike Kilbride, the chief executive of the BePART Educational Trust and principal of Birkenhead Sixth Form College,said that the “consistent interruption” his pupils faced could place them at a disadvantage.

While he is pleased with the remote-learning offer. Mike claims it is around 90 per cent of the quality of the teaching in normal circumstances.

“That experience has been diminished and in the highly competitive nature of exams that could be the difference.

“Teaching isn’t about delivering information, it’s about looking into the eyes of every student in your classroom and seeing the extent to which they are understanding what you are saying to them and adjusting what you do.”

Exams should “have some degree of optionality”.

Latest statistics from the DfE show that about half of all state-funded secondary schools have pupils self-isolating because of a potential contact with a case of coronavirus inside school.

Around 409,000, did not attend school for Covid-related reasons last week – with 0.1 per cent having a confirmed Covid case.

EDWARD WEBSTEROCTOBER 23, 2020