Research from the Sutton Trust shows that students feel that this year’s exam arrangements didn’t take the impacts of the pandemic sufficiently into account, with many feeling concerned about falling behind - particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Sutton Trust’s research echoes what we are hearing from our Future Leaders, an other academic specialists: that this cohort has the worst of all worlds; exams are back, but not enough has been done to plug the gaps left by two years of Covid disruption. From the exam algorithm fiasco in the summer of 2020 to the longer-term lack of real understanding of the challenges faced by disadvantaged families, including access to devices and broadband and the absence of physical and mental space needed to learn online, the UK government’s efforts were found to be wanting.
