The Department for Education will consult with exams regulator Ofqual over pushing forward GCSEs and A levels in 2021 to a later date in order to give pupils and teachers more time to prepare.
In the House of Commons today, responding to oral questions, secretary of state Gavin Williamson said the government was considering holding the exams later than usual.
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In response to Alec Shelbrooke, Conservative MP for Elmet and Rothwell, who asked about moving the 2021 exams season from May to July, Mr Williamson said: “One of the key elements of the billion-pound package [to help pupils catch up on learning lost during school closures] is making sure those children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds have extra support in terms of one-on-one tutoring and tutoring in small groups.
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“But my honourable friend raises an important point about how do we add more teaching time in, and that’s why we’ll be consulting with Ofqual about how we can move those exams back, giving children extra time in order to be able to learn and really flourish and do incredibly well.”
Ofqual had already discussed the possibility of delaying exams with headteachers’ unions, Tes revealed earlier this month, along with reduced content in papers or open-book assessments.
