Schools minister Nick Gibb said exam results in England need to return to pre-pandemic levels this year to carry “weight and credibility” with employers.
During the COVID-19 pandemic teachers, rather than external examiners, were marking mock exams and assessing classwork, which led to overall inflated grades across subjects.
The top GCSE, AS and A-level grades rose in 2020 and 2021.
Mr. Gibb said there was now an expectation exam aids in some GCSE subjects which were used this year—to make up for disruption during the pandemic—would not be offered to students in 2024.
GCSE students in England who took mathematics, physics and combined science were given formulae and equation sheets in exams to mitigate the potential loss of learning during the pandemic.
A-level exam results will be out on August 17 and GCSE results a week later.
‘It is Important to get Back to Normal’
Mr. Gibb said, “It is important to get back to normal because we want these qualifications to continue to carry the weight and credibility both with employers and with universities and colleges that they need to have.”He said: “Every year that elapses is a year away from the disruption caused by the pandemic and there are more years that those young people have had in school full time.”
Pupils in England have also faced disruption due to a series of teacher strikes by members of the National Education Union since February 2023. Earlier this week the union accepted the government’s latest pay offer.
Mr. Gibb said, “A typical student in 2019, given the same level of ability, the same level of diligence, the likelihood is that same student would get the same grades in 2023 as they would have done in 2019.”
Exam regulators in Wales and Northern Ireland have said they do not plan to return to pre-pandemic grading until 2024.
Mr. Gibb said the final decision on removing exam aids would be taken “in due course” but he said “that will be the expectation.”
“The grading is back to 2019 levels and we expect the system to be back fully in the following year,” the minister said.
The results of thousands of vocational-technical qualification (VTQ) exams were delayed or had errors last year.
Asked whether he could rule out delays to VTQ results this year, Mr Gibb said: “You can’t predict anything about exam results whether it’s the academic side or the vocational side but certainly we have done everything, the regulator has done everything they can to make sure that there aren’t those delays because they were unacceptable last year and we don’t want to see it happening again this year.”
Ofqual Boss Expects Return to Pandemic Levels
“With 16 million GCSE, AS and A-level scripts now in the final stages of marking, nationally we are expecting results to be similar to before the pandemic,” she added.Ms. Saxton said: “Grade protections have been built in to reflect that performance is likely to be a little weaker because of the disruption that students experienced.”
“This return to normal is an important milestone, and while overall results will be lower than last year, students can have confidence that their grades will reflect what they know and understand and will help them make the right choice about their next step, whether that’s further study or moving into the world of work,” she added.
The Scottish Qualifications Authority said it planned to take “a sensitive approach” to grading this year to take into account the ongoing impact of the pandemic.
