Schools minister Nick Gibb has suggested that GCSE and A-level grading in 2021 will reflect the “lost learning” pupils have experienced as a result of the pandemic.

Speaking at an accountability hearing with the House of Commons’ Education Select Committee, Mr Gibb was asked by committee chair Robert Halfon about what would happen with exams in 2021 if pupils missed learning through school closures.

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Mr Gibb said: “There are two issues - one is the issue across the country as a whole, the lost education all students will have suffered as a consequence of schools being closed to most students from March until the summer. And we’ll have more to say about this in the next few weeks, but that will be dealt with through issues such as grading, which Ofqual and the exam boards are working through.”

He added: “The other issue that really worries me, more than any other issue that we’re having to grapple with at the moment, is unfairness and unevenness, where different students with a different experience of missing education during this period, and that is something again that we’re working with exam boards and through Ofqual to seek to address - it’s not an easy issue to address but it is something that worries me a lot.”