Ofqual has announced that pupils sitting GCSEs and A-levels next summer will receive fewer top grades compared to this year’s cohort. To help address the learning lost due to the pandemic, students will be given advanced notice of some exam topics. The 2022 summer exams will be treated as a "transition year" with grade boundaries set midway between pre-pandemic levels in 2019 and 2021’s record results. This follows the cancellation of exams for the second year running, which were replaced by teacher assessments. The grades will then return to the pre-pandemic levels in 2019 for pupils sitting exams in 2023. This two-stage plan aims to reduce grade inflation and bring results back to normal levels without triggering a sudden drop in results for pupils next summer.
Ofqual said that more students will still obtain higher grades than before the pandemic but with adjusted grade boundaries, the proportion of pupils receiving top A-level grades may drop by as much as 10 percentage points compared to last summer’s results. After a public consultation, the government and Ofqual confirmed a range of adaptations to next summer’s exams to make up for the disruption to learning. This includes a greater choice of topics in some GCSE exams such as English literature and history.
Advance information about the focus of some exams will also be made available to schools in early February to help teachers and students make the best use of the revision period in the final months before assessment. Support materials like formulae sheets for maths will be made available in exams. Although the government has made plain its desire for exams to go ahead next year, Ofqual also published contingency plans for the use of teacher-assessed grades again in 2022 if exams have to be cancelled for a third year running due to Covid.
The education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, said that fairness was at the heart of their approach. "The measures we’re putting in place will help reduce the impact of the significant disruption this group of young people have had to face – allowing them to move on to the next stage of their lives. We are committed to rigorous standards being fairly applied, and exams are the fairest way to assess students, which is why they will take place next year."
Ofqual’s chief regulator, Dr Jo Saxton, added that their grading approach would recognize the disruption experienced by students taking exams in 2022. "It will provide a safety net for those who might otherwise miss out on a higher grade while taking a step back to normal. Choice in some subjects and advance information to support revision are intended to provide support for all as we emerge from the pandemic."
However, Dr Mary Bousted, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said that the announcement came too late and would not ease the anxiety for many teachers. On exam adaptations, she said: "Only giving advanced information about the exams in time for revision will result in a ‘topic lottery’ where some students will have covered the topics on the exam in sufficient depth and others may have not."