The Government has squandered the opportunity for a post-pandemic shake-up of the exams system which could have taken pressure off A-level and GCSE students, a leader of a private schools group has said.
Kevin Stannard, director of innovation and learning at the Girls’ Day School Trust, a group of 25 private schools, called for radical change which would see teenagers being given their A-level results before applying for university. This would in turn take pressure off GCSE students, because their results would no longer be looked at in such detail by universities.
Currently students apply to university using predicted A-level grades and only find out if they have been successful on results day. Thousands will go through this process when they receive their results next Thursday. The exams were cancelled for two years during the pandemic and grades were based on teacher assessments, but they were held again for the first time this summer.
