A FORMER Tory Education Secretary has called for next year’s A Levels and GCSEs to be scrapped.
Kenneth Baker said the six month school shutdown has left it impossible for disadvantaged kids to catch up.
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He warned Covid outbreaks are forcing schools to partially shut – condemning children to yet more months of “fragmentary and broken” education.
He has written to Gavin Williamson warning him not to risk another A Levels results fiasco by pushing ahead with unfair exams.
The Tory peer – one of Margaret Thatcher’s old Education Secretaries – pleaded with the government to U-turn.
In a stark letter, Lord Baker warned it “will not be fair to disadvantaged students to have written exams next summer”.
He wrote: “I have believed for some time that it would be very difficult for disadvantaged students to catch- up over the next 26 weeks.
“But I think the further disruptions that Covid-19 is now causing to schools will make it impossible.”
He added: “The examination results in 2021 could be very unfair to disadvantaged students.
“Students are facing a long period of fractured and disrupted education, and so it will be grossly unfair to expect them to sit standard written exams which measure the knowledge acquired in a standard student attendance.”
Mr Williamson was forced to tear up A Level exam results this year after a computer algorithm down-marked a whopping 40 per cent of grades.
The fiasco united teachers, parents and students in fury and sparked calls from disgruntled Tories for Mr Williamson to be sacked.
Mr Williamson has heavily hinted that he will delay next year’s exams to give kids a little longer to catch up on lessons.
But he has refused to scrap them.
The PM’s spokesman said: “We do expect exams to take place next year and are working with exam boards and Ofqual on our approach, recognising that students experienced considerable disrupting to education last year.”
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