Shirebrook Academy principal wants 'grossly unfair' GCSE exams scrapped next year

Mark Cottingham, principal of Shirebrook Academy, says that he would prefer for exams to be scrapped for another year, with grades being decided by the schools instead.

This is because while the current year 11 students are now back behind their desks, they are likely to be sent home to self isolate at points during the year, a situation that will vary from student to student, school to school and area to area.

As a result, they are likely to miss many more days’ worth of in-school learning.

This, said Mr Cottingham, is what makes the situation so unfair, especially in a town like Shirebrook, where the number of disadvantaged students is higher than the national average.

He continued: “Everyone understands that the coronavirus is nobody’s fault, but this decision will compound the inequalities faced by disadvantaged students who can lack the family support or technology at home that more privileged peers take for granted.

“Ordinarily, that factor is lessened because, in the classroom, everyone is equal.

"However, the current year 11s have already spent months away from the classroom and there is a high likelihood that they will be doing more remote studying before the school year is out.”

“It took the Government a long time to decide what to do and although it wasn’t perfect, it was the fairest outcome for everybody in the end.

“The best thing to do would be to use a similar system next year, because while everyone understood the stress and anxiety that this year’s cohort experienced, in my view the current year 11 students are in a much worse position because they’ve lost months’ worth of learning, they’re likely to lose more, and they’ll still have to sit their exams.

“Exams are an imperfect way to judge someone’s performances at the best of times, but they are wholly unsuitable at this moment and, far from closing the equality gap, this decision will only blow it even more wide open next summer.”