Gavin Williamson adds to exams muddle; now call in the experts – The Yorkshire Post says

This much is clear after the Department for Education indicated that A-level and GCSE students would be judged by traditional exams before Labour called for these tests to be delayed by a matter of weeks to enable teachers, and pupils, to catch up.

Now the DfE says that it is considering just such a move – and that it had been in talks with Ofqual, the exams regulator, since June on the very subject. Has Mr Williamson learned nothing about the importance of clearer communication after complaining that he had been misrepresented?

Yet, as schools reopen with teachers, families and students unclear about the rules of engagement when it comes to the next set of career-defining exams, they don’t have the clarity that Mr Williamson says that he has now provided.

It is already emerging, by way of example, that admissions to university next year could descend into chaos – even envy – as students assessed by exams in the summer of 2021 (date to still be specified) are left disadvantaged by the 2020 cohort who deferred their applications and are the beneficiary of superior teacher-assessed grades.

Just one of many potential injustices that the DfE and Ofqual failed to foresee, the only answer is for these two organisations – both of which have seen their most senior officials leave – to work together with Parliament’s cross-party Education Select Committee, and top universities, to come up with an acceptable way forward by the end of the month. Such collaboration is even more essential when the Education Secretary remains such a figure of fun because of a collective loss of confidence in his stewardship of schools and his inability to adequately answer basic questions of procedure in the Commons.

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