Too many people, across the UK, with the aim of doing good but with zero experience working in education clambered for GCSE, AS-Level & A-Level examinations to be scrapped from an early stage.
Now they are scrapped.
Guess what all the teenagers in these age groups are going back to school to do in 12 days time… exams. Much earlier examinations than what they would have been = much less time to prepare – for them and teachers, on the back of a lengthy lockdown.
Everyone wanted a “fair” system. Well, we moved from anonymous students being assessed by anonymous examiners to pupils being assessed by their teacher … very publicly. No anonymity for either… with university places hanging in the balance.
We moved from a detached examination body setting, assessing & moderating students to imposing the setting, assessing and moderating of student work on to the classroom teacher, whilst they are still trying to teach, assess and provide feedback to all of the other students in the school.
I do understand that many people only moved to the position whereby exams should be scrapped later, when they felt there was no other option. I also fully appreciate that, when the remainder of the UK made these decisions to scrap exams , NI was placed in a position where parity was needed. I myself accepted at this point that we were in a hole and exams had to go.
So, now we can all share parity in a total and utter mess.
However, there WERE options a year ago, even 8 months ago.
I stress, the current mess is NOT down to COVID. It is down to very poor decision-making and an unwillingness to listen to school principals & educationalists, a year ago, when each subject had a full summer (and more) to put workable alternatives in place. Many alternatives were proposed by teachers on the ground themselves, and completely ignored.
Courses could and should have been squashed in May/June/July/August 2020 (which is what is happening haphazardly now). Assessments could and should have been made then for the newly squashed versions of the curriculum – maintaining the integrity of all the subject Assessment Objectives.
A number of educationalists suggested squashing examination courses by as much as 60% as far back as June 2020. A winter wave of Covid was expected. Everyone was told this. It wasn’t a secret.
At Christmas, when the predicted second wave had struck, the decision was then taken to do just this. Scrap huge chunks of the course.
It was disastrously late.
Teachers, given no proper direction, had taught different aspects in different schools.
On Friday 5th March 2021, guidance about exams and processes was released. Not until Friday 19th March 2021, however, will teachers be provided specific subject guidance. I am told that some students, maybe your child, in some schools, are being assessed in the week beginning Monday 22nd March.
*This is NOT a criticism of any school. Schools are now working to very tight timetables to submit marks and gather substantial evidence and complete administration in time for a May deadline. Many of these schools will not have been able to have their Winter exams if they were in January.
I know these “final” assessments are not the fullness of what can contribute toward the grade. This is actually a relatively significant difference to running external examinations, but for 16-18 year olds, when they know something contributes to that grade, tensions are heightened just the same. There was also an option a year ago for a hybrid of external (exam board) / internal (school) assessment, where this didn’t already exist.
Let me put these dates in context. GCSE, AS & ALEVEL teachers “map” their curriculum for each year. My target every year is to have the course taught as close to St Patrick’s Day as possible (I rarely manage this, but it is a target), to allow for examination technique, practice assessments, feedback, fine tuning etc- because, before you know it it’s Easter and the students will all but have started many formal assessments, which will take them through April (some practical/listenings etc), May & June.
So I’ll repeat that: teachers are receiving subject specific guidance on 19th March, after only finding out the processes for assessment on 5th March, for assessments to happen in the coming weeks…
I give up.
MultifacetedLens 