A-Level Students In England Can Use Mock Exam Grades, Government To Announce
GCSE and A-level students in England will be able to use grades in mock exams to progress to university and college courses and employment, the education secretary is set to announce.
Results in mock tests – which were held before schools were forced to close amid the Covid-19 crisis – will carry the same weight as the calculated results to be awarded this month, the government will say.
The move comes after unions called on the UK government to follow Scotland’s lead in scrapping moderated grades after the downgrading of more than 124,000 results was reversed.
In a U-turn announced on Tuesday, Scotland’s Education Secretary John Swinney revealed that downgraded results would revert to the grades estimated by pupils’ teachers.
It comes after this year’s summer exams were cancelled amid Covid-19. Teachers were told to submit the grades they thought each student would have received if they had sat the papers.
Exam boards have moderated these grades to ensure this year’s results – for students in England, Northern Ireland and Wales – are not significantly higher than previous years.
But now education secretary Gavin Williamson is due to tell students in England awaiting their A-level results this week that they can keep their grades in mock exams if they are higher than the calculated grade.
Students will still be able to sit exams in the autumn if they are unhappy with the grades they secured in mock exams, or if they are dissatisfied with results awarded by exam boards on Thursday.
All three grades will hold the same value with universities, colleges and employers, the Department for Education (DfE) is expected to say.
Williamson is also due to announce an additional £30 million in funding to help schools and colleges carry out the autumn exam series for students wishing to sit GCSE and A-level exams.
But the appeals process – where individual students in England are dependent on schools and colleges to appeal against results on their behalf – is...
