Schools minister Nick Gibb has said there are “absolutely” no plans within the Department for Education to scrap GCSEs over the long term, saying he disagrees “wholeheartedly” with those who argue that the qualifications have “had their day”.

Speaking at a Commons Education Select Committee hearing on grading in 2021, Mr Gibb said he thought GCSEs were a “gold standard” qualification and that the government wanted exams back after the pandemic.

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David Johnston, Conservative MP for Wantage, asked: “We’ve got a lot more questions about the detail of this year but a concern I have is that some people are using the past two years of no exams to suggest that actually now’s the time to not use exams and to use teacher assessment at least at GCSE, which I think would be bad for the poorest children most of all.

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“Can you just confirm there’s no planning in the department that this could become a permanent fixture of how we assess children and young people?”

Mr Gibb said: “I absolutely can confirm that, but, you know, what we have learned, really, is that exams are the fairest way of judging the attainment and ability and work of students, and we want to get back to exams as soon as possible.

“Right up until 4 January, we were planning on having exams this year in 2021 and we had put in place a range of measures of how to tackle the differential learning and disruption that students had faced up to that point, but we wanted to go ahead with exams.

“It was only after the decision to close schools to most pupils from January that we just decided that the unfairness was too great for those methods to be able to compensate for it and we had to go to teacher assessment, but in terms of the long term, we want exams back because they are fairer, and I think there’s been some debate about GCSEs.

“I think GCSEs are an excellent way of making sure students cover a broad and balanced curriculum, those GCSE specifications are well structured. They are a gold-standard qualification in Britain and internationally, and I disagree wholeheartedly with those that say that GCSEs have had their day.”

There has been growing disquiet with GCSEs as a qualification, with bodies such as the Chartered College of Teaching arguing that it is time to rethink assessment at 16. 

Dame Alison Peacock, chief executive of the Chartered College, said last year: “[The assessment system] has been flawed for a long time but it absolutely became clear during the summer that this was very unfair - because the way our system works means that a third of our youngsters will always fail in order that two-thirds can pass. So we need to make sure we look at this.”