As a teacher, academic and parent of a daughter who was, until 5.15pm on Wednesday, about to take her A-levels, I must comment on the government’s reckless announcement that all summer exams are cancelled (UK schools to be closed indefinitely and exams cancelled, 18 March). Would it not have been more sensible to announce that exams would not take place at the usual time, but that discussions were ongoing about how best to mitigate this, and that a further announcement regarding assessment would be made later? At least students would have continued working.
Efforts by parents and teachers to encourage students to revise and refresh their knowledge will surely now be ignored. In the new academic year, sixth forms, FE colleges and universities will be accepting students who will likely have done no academic work since mid-March. All teachers recognise the atrophy which occurs over the long summer holiday, never mind a six-month gap.
On Wednesday night, I witnessed my daughter and her friends experiencing something akin to a bereavement. They will not be able to go through the ordinary rites of passage associated with the end of one’s schooling. Instead, they will be self-isolating for a lengthy period, with nothing to do. The mental challenges are going to be hard enough, for children and parents, without the added purposelessness these students now face.
Dr Rachel Mathieson
Research fellow, University of Leeds
• For some time there has been discussion about whether the start of the university year can, or should, be moved to January. It seems to me that there is now an opportunity to do this. If you move all school exams from this summer term to the first half of the autumn term, students would get GCSE and A-level results well before Christmas, in time to decide on the next step, including university entry in January. Start the next academic year in January. Continue with this arrangement.
One reason for not making this change in the past was that students’ time would be wasted, as there would be an empty term between school and university. This is something that we’re now obliged to have, so let’s make the most of it.
Dr Margaret Mackintosh
Exmouth, Devon
• Can we now anticipate that Michael Gove’s misguided reforms of GCSEs and A-levels will be reversed to place greater emphasis on assessed coursework and less on end-of-course examinations as appropriate measures of student achievement?
Kristine Mason O’Connor
(Professor emerita), Bristol
