A Level exams to be delayed next summer, minister to announce

A level exams will be delayed by three weeks under plans being drawn up by ministers, The Telegraph has learned, after Number 10 refused to cave to demands for them to be shelved for another year. 

According to Whitehall and education insiders, Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, will next week confirm that the exam timetable will be extended to mid-July in order to help pupils catch up after four months of school closures.

It comes after university vice-chancellors and the former Tory education secretary Lord Baker this week called for exams to be cancelled, warning that students do not have enough time to make up for the disruption caused by lockdown.

However, insiders claim that David Brown, the director of operations at the Department for Education, has made clear in a series of private meetings that ministers are “adamant” that exams must go ahead despite the ongoing disruption caused by covid-19.

The Education Secretary is determined to avoid the need for an alternative form of assessment in the wake of the exams fiasco last summer, which saw Ofqual’s algorithm ditched in favour of teacher assessed grades after a national outcry. 

Instead, Mr Brown has signalled that a delay of three weeks is being worked on by ministers and the exams regulator.

Dame Glenys Stacey, the head of Ofqual, is also understood to have accepted the need for a delay, with the regulator now working on plans to ensure a timely turnaround of results before the university academic year begins.

Nick Gibb, the schools minister, is due to meet sector leaders early next week before Mr Williamson makes the official announcement.

On Thursday night, Mr Williamson also placed a legal duty on schools to provide “high-quality and consistent” teaching to students who are forced to self-isolate at home.

It will come into force on October 22 and continue throughout the academic year, with Mr Williamson able to take legal action to enforce the requirement if schools fail to comply.

The DfE will make 100,000 extra laptops available to ensure students who are forced to study remotely are still able to complete work at home.

It comes amid concern that some schools failed to provide students with adequate provision and resources during lockdown.

Approached for comment, a DfE source did not deny the plans to delay exams, stating only that things were fast moving and were subject to change. A spokesman also confirmed that Mr Williamson would make an announcement this month.

To accommodate for gaps in students’ knowledge, ministers are also believed to be looking at introducing more “optionality” into exam papers.

This would enable pupils to answer questions on a smaller pool of topics rather than a broad range across the syllabus, without their exam marks being compromised.

It would also allow teachers to focus on key parts of the syllabus rather than attempting to rush through the entire course before the exam season begins.

However, the proposed delay is likely to be met with resistance from some of the country’s largest teaching unions, who argue a longer postponement is required due to the ongoing disruption caused by the pandemic.

Robert Halfon, the Tory chairman of the Commons education committee, has called on ministers to launch an “urgent assessment” of how far behind students are before determining how long to delay exams for.

Several unions are also calling for Mr Williamson to draw up a “Plan B” in the event that he is forced to cancel exams due to a resurgence in Covid-19, which would involve a more robust system of teacher assessed grades.

Separately, Lord Baker, who served as education secretary under Margaret Thatcher, told The Telegraph he believed it would be “impossible” to have exams next year without placing poorer students at a significant disadvantage.

He added that while more affluent and privately educated pupils would be able to make up the time lost, students from deprived backgrounds who lacked the equipment to study at home would have “great difficulty catching up.”

“It's grossly unfair to expect them to catch up. You haven’t got a level playing field because there already fractures in attendance this year across the country.”

A DfE spokesman said: “There are a range of measures proposed by Ofqual following a public consultation, including a possible short delay to the exam timetable and subject-specific changes to reduce pressure on teaching time.

“We will continue to work with school and college stakeholders, Ofqual and the exam boards, to ensure that exams in 2021 are fair.”