London headteachers today renewed calls for exams to go ahead next year and for more help for poorer students disadvantaged by the lockdown.
Scotland is replacing some exams with teacher assessments and coursework next year. But one headteacher, Alun Ebenezer, head of Fulham Boys School, said: “It would be a terrible thing if we followed Scotland … If we didn’t have exams boys would just down tools.”
Exams could be delayed to help students who missed work during the lockdown to catch up. But poorer students could be at a disadvantage because many did not have access to technology to learn remotely, and have not had the benefit of private tutors.
A government spokeswoman said: “We are committed to exams going ahead next year, as they are the fairest way of judging students’ performance.”
Meanwhile researchers from the University of Edinburgh said closing schools “leads to more overall deaths from Covid-19” because herd immunity is not built up among the healthy and young, who face only a tiny risk of dying.
