Responding to the announcement that A level and GCSE results are to be decided by teaches, Daisy Cooper MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Education, commented: “Parents, teachers and pupils have been left in limbo for months because the Government has dithered and delayed about how to carry out assessments this year. Liberal Democrats led the calls for exams to be cancelled as soon as it was clear that holding traditional exams in a way which would be fair to all pupils would be impossible, given the very different experiences pupils have had of the pandemic and school closures.
Kirsty Williams, the Liberal Democrat Education Minister in the Welsh Government, confirmed in November last year that assessments would not go ahead in the usual way. By contrast, this government has needlessly left pupils parents and teachers in England wracked with anxiety and unable to plan.
While it is good news that it has finally been confirmed that teachers assessments will be used as the basis of grades this year, the Education Secretary’s failure to show leadership once again during this crisis, has meant months of uncertainty for pupils and their teachers and given them less time to prepare for these new assessments.