The government is under pressure to announce any adaptations for 2022 exams by the start of September in order to relieve pressure on teachers and students, and to give students more chance of receiving fair grades.
The call comes as Labour analysis, based on Department for Education data, reveals that exam students have missed one in four days of face-to-face GCSE or Btec teaching this academic year.
Kate Green, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said: “Uncertainty just piles pressure on pupils and teachers, so the longer ministers dither and delay, the harder it will be to set a level playing field and ensure every pupil gets fair grades.
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“Ministers need to learn from their mistakes and set out a plan by the time pupils return to school in September.”
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Meanwhile, unions have also joined the call, including the NAHT school leaders’ union, which, back in April, demanded “real clarity” by the end of this term on how next year’s exams will work, including adaptations for exams and contingency plans, should they be disrupted.
Deputy general secretary Nick Brook said: “The details of those plans must be made available by the start of the autumn term so that they can be taken into account in teachers’ planning for the new academic year and have the desired impact on students’ learning and teacher workload.”
And Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said 1 September was the “absolute latest” by which information should be provided about final proposals for next year’s exams.
She said: “There still hasn’t been any detail nor a public consultation, and we are already in July. That is unacceptable. As the consultation must be at least two weeks long, and the government and Ofqual will then have to consider all responses, it is now almost certain that final proposals will come, at the earliest, in the summer holidays.
“That the consultation has not yet taken place speaks to the government’s blatant and continued disregard for the workload of education professionals. Timely planning for teaching in the next academic year is surely essential.”
The Department for Education said it would “provide further details shortly”.
A spokesperson said: “We intend exams to go ahead in 2022, as well as vocational and technical qualifications. We are currently considering what more we can do to ensure fairness and the right level of support for pupils, and we will provide further details shortly.
“We are committed to an ambitious, long-term education recovery plan, which is backed by an investment to date of over £3 billion and a significant expansion of our tutoring programme, to support children and young people to make up for disruption to their education.”
