By Florentina-Mirela Cercel, Olivia Snaith-Cairns, M. Victoria Calabrese, Maame Takyi, Paloma Clothilde Mairone
GCSEs and A-Levels will not go ahead “as normal” this year amid COVID chaos, the Prime Minister has said.
Yesterday’s announcement by Boris Johnson leaves a lot of young people, teachers and parents in limbo. The Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is yet to announce how students will be assessed this year in the summer 2021 exam period, following the disruption of the new wave of COVID-19.
Remote learning is in question for most students across the UK, however it has been understood that the Education Secretary is currently in the process of making future plans for students hard work to be recognised; it is still unsure how.
In a recent interview with Nick Ferrari for LBC, when asked about why there wasn’t any relevant advice given before the new lockdown, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said: “We wanted to do all that we could to make sure the children had access to education, because we know the best place for children to be in, in order to be taught and to learn, is the classroom.”
Happy exams are cancelled
Hope Robertson, currently a GCSE Student at St. Hild’s Church of England Secondary School, said: “I’m quite happy that GCSE exams have been cancelled, as I don’t normally do well in exams. But on the other hand, I also think that not having exams throws away all that hard work we’ve done over the last seven months.”
She explained that others in her classes are angry and upset that this is happening. “The school, as well as other students, guessed that this would happen, so I was pretty prepared and ready for online classes and to work harder to boost my grades up.”
Calebcito Augusto, 19, a student at Merton College said: “ Students have examinations included in their course so they will be affected by this national lockdown, as last year there were predicted grades which didn’t favour the students. So in this year, if there is any predicted grades system, it has to be fair to the students.”
Even though students are understanding of the government’s reason for canceling exams, they are frustrated about the uncertainty of the situation. More guidance will have to come out soon in order to help everyone understand what will happen in the future.
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