Cancellation of exams - contradictory statements from governemet

[edithjones]

On 8 March the government rejected an online petition to cancel GCSE and A Level examinations because of COVID-19. The reason being that it is not the job of government to cancel exams but down to examination boards and schools. The response also acknowledges the impact on the students of making such a decision. See here:
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300884

Personally I think the government should reverse this decision and do everything they can to ensure the exams do happen, somehow!

Interesting.
Maybe the exam boards agreed?

No, the government didn't reject the petition. The government only looks at and responds to a petition when it has 10,000 signatures. The petitions website is run by parliament, not the government. It was parliamentary staff that rejected it. As they say, normally this would be a decision for individual exam boards.

A week ago the government and the experts were hoping that the delay strategy would work and there would be no need to close schools. The rejection of this petition by parliament reflects that. However, the government has now used its emergency powers to cancel all exams.

The epidemic in the UK is expected to reach its peak in May/June. As my youngest is due to take his GCSEs this year and has been working hard towards them I would prefer them to go ahead but I recognise that, in the current situation, stopping Coronavirus is far more important.

Pretty sure the schools and exam boards made the decision nd the government only did the announcing.

Pretty sure the schools weren’t involved

Oh for goodness sake, they have had quite a lot to do in a rather short time, don't you think? The detail will follow once they get a chance.

On another thread Carrie, a teacher reported that this week they were asked to update and submit revised predicted grades for all students. A

So, by that post alone, it is obvious the schools were involved.

Did it say when they needed to submit predicted grades? Dd has her last two mocks tomorrow

I recall the poster saying she was asked to update and submit predicted grades this week but no details on whether the deadline to submit was also this week. I am hunting for the thread and post now. If I can find it, I will post link and text.

I thought it had been widely publicised that although schools were expecting the closure, the exam news came as a complete surprise.

Couldn’t find the thread, but the BBC did publish an article yesterday confirming that teachers will update their predicted grades for the students.
“Pupils whose exams were cancelled due to the coronavirus epidemic will be given grades estimated by their teachers, the government has said.”
www.bbc.com/news/education-51980831

Throughabushbackwards Sat 21-Mar-20 09:13:20 post:
“HoDs meeting at my school late yesterday concluded that all we know so far is:

1. Grades will be awarded in July.

1. Grades will be awarded based on whatever evidence schools are asked to provide. This may include mocks, coursework or future assessments (our school has facility to do this remotely), but at present we have not had any details from the government or the exam boards who will, no doubt, set out stringent guidelines for what we are to compile.

1. There will be an option for pupils to take an exam later in the year if they feel they will perform better than the grade they are given in July.”