Exam board Pearson Edexcel has followed OxfordAQA in cancelling its international assessments this year, having previously said exams would go ahead.
In a statement on its website, the board said it will not be proceeding with International GCSE and International A-level exams this year, and that it will “use a robust approach based on teacher assessment” to award grades instead.
The move will impact on UK private schools that use IGCSEs and IA levels.
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The board said it will offer an additional series of IGCSE exams later in the year, and that the October IA-level series will go ahead as normal.
IGCSE and IA-level exams cancelled
“Our priorities throughout this pandemic have been to keep everyone safe and well, and to ensure fairness so that every student receives a grade that reflects their knowledge and understanding,” the statement from the board said.
“In making this decision, we have spoken to many schools, teachers and students and have carefully considered a range of options.
“These included having exams in some countries and teacher assessment in others. Given the ongoing uncertainty, we feel that this could not be done fairly and would risk unintentionally disadvantaging individual students.”
Last week, OxfordAQA confirmed that it would be cancelling its IGCSE and IA-level exams, saying it had made the decision after “listening to the views of teachers, parents and students around the world” and concluding that the fairest option would be to switch instead to the same teacher-assessed grades system being used in England.
