More than three-quarters of teachers and school leaders have reported seeing poor mental health linked to exam anxiety in this year’s GCSE cohort, a survey published today shows.
Some 77 per cent of those surveyed said that their Year 11 students had experienced mental health issues related to exam anxiety, while 74 per cent said alternative arrangements were necessary for some students taking exams at their schools because of exam anxiety.
The survey - undertaken by Teacher Tapp on behalf of the Association of School and College Leaders - also revealed that 47 per cent of those surveyed reported students arriving or leaving the exam hall in distress.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of ASCL, has said the survey findings provide a “stark reminder” that reforms brought in under the last government “have had unintended and detrimental consequences on our young people”.
‘High-stakes, end-of-course model causing significant stress’
Reforms brought in by Michael Gove led to a reduction in coursework, with the former education secretary expressing a wish for the qualifications to be “explicitly harder” than the existing GCSEs.
As a result, almost all examination now takes place at the end of the course, resulting in a large number of examinations in a six-week period.
Analysis published by ASCL in 2017 claimed that a student taking a typical set of the new GCSEs would spend over eight extra hours sitting exams compared to the old system.
Of the school leaders surveyed by ASCL about this year’s exam cohort, 65 per cent reported students not attending school in the past year due to exam anxiety, while 46 per cent said students have been experiencing physical reactions to the stress of exams during the exam period.
And 28 per cent of respondents said their schools had students who were withdrawn from GCSE exams because of exam anxiety.
Last year, Tes revealed growing fears over a shortage of invigilator staff to oversee students sitting GCSE and A-level exams as leaders warned of the “most anxious cohort they’ve ever had”.
Students experiencing anxiety can request to take their exams in separate rooms away from the exam hall, meaning an increase in the number of invigilators needed.
Mr Di’Iasio said that the findings “paint a deeply concerning picture of the significant impact that the current GCSE system is having on the mental health of our students”.
“These results are a stark reminder that the changes made to GCSEs under the previous government have had unintended and detrimental consequences on our young people. It is clear that the current high-stakes, end-of-course exam model is causing significant stress and anxiety among students, which is unacceptable,” he added.
A balancing act to ‘preserve exam integrity’
The survey also revealed that 77 per cent of teachers think that the current number of subjects that students typically take at GCSE (seven to 10) is “about right”.
However, teachers were split over whether there are currently too many papers or hours of examinations in the subjects they teach.
Of the respondents, 55 per cent said that they would like to see a reduction of content within individual subjects, with 51 per cent calling for options for modular exams throughout the year.
Half wanted to see more vocational subjects available as GCSEs.
Just four per cent of teachers said that they would like to see no changes to assessments at 16.
The new Labour government recently launched its curriculum and assessment review, which is being led by Professor Becky Francis, seconded from the role of chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation.
Mr Di’Iasio said it was important that Labour’s review of curriculum and assessment “strikes the right balance of assessment methods while preserving the integrity of examinations” and that any changes should be “manageable for education staff to administer and implement and are introduced in a way that does not overload them”.
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