THE GOVERNMENT has failed students, parents and teachers by cancelling GCSE and A level exams in England, according to the Yorkshire Party.

Party leader, Bob Buxton, said: “Exams can be postponed, reformatted and adjusted to take into account the difficulties of education in lockdown. But to throw in the towel is unacceptable. Inevitably, without the incentive of exam success, less learning will happen again.”

Dr Buxton, who lives in Rawdon, teaches engineering apprentices in Bradford and has developed a number of engineering courses in the past.

He said: “I’ve been responsible for writing exams for a variety of different qualifications over the years. Exams can take different forms, such as open-book, the important thing is to have a way of assessing students’ abilities, fairly. Yet the Government isn’t even going to try.”

“Huge pressure will be put on teachers to be optimistic. Whenever I or my teaching colleagues have tried to predict a class’s grades, there have always been some surprises – good and bad. It simply isn’t fair to students or teachers.”

“Last year’s measures were understandable, as things unfolded very quickly. But this year the Government has absolutely failed to prepare for the very obvious possibility of this third lockdown; they make it up as they go along, they don’t learn their lessons and everyone is paying the price for their failure.”

In a statement to Parliament earlier this month Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said: “Last year, all four nations of the UK found their arrangements for awarding grades did not deliver what they needed, with the impact felt painfully by students and their parents. Although exams are the fairest way we have of assessing what a student knows, the impact of this pandemic now means that it is not possible to have these exams this year. I can confirm that GCSEs and A and AS Level exams will not go ahead this summer. This year we are going to put our trust in teachers rather than algorithms.

"The department and Ofqual had already worked up a range of contingency options. While the details will need to be fine-tuned in consultation with Ofqual, the exam boards and teaching representatives, I can confirm now that I wish to use a form of teacher-assessed grades, with training and support provided to ensure these are awarded fairly and consistently.

"I know students and staff have worked hard to prepare for the January exams and assessments of vocational and technical qualifications, and we want to allow schools and colleges to continue with these assessments where they judge it is right to do so. No college should feel pressured to offer these and we will ensure all students are able to progress fairly, just as we will with VTQs in the summer."