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GCSE and A-Level exams will be scrapped after Boris Johnson says summer tests ‘not possible or fair’
GCSE and A-Level exams are set to be scrapped this year after Boris Johnson said summer tests aren't "possible or fair" for the nation's kids.
The Prime Minister is expected to axe the exams for a second year, he revealed as he announced a third lockdown for England.
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The March-style lockdown will see schools closed, non-essential shops shuttered, Brits confined to their homes and most travel banned.
In his sombre address on Monday night, Mr Johnson said the number of people testing positive for Covid has exploded across England as a mutant strain takes hold across all regions and infections triple in just a month.
Schools must close to tackle the spread of the super-contagious strain, he said.
And he stressed: "We have to do everything we possibly can to stop the spread of the disease."
"Schools and colleges across England must move to remote provision from tomorrow, Tuesday, except for vulnerable children and the children of key workers."
And he added: "It is not possible or fair for all exams to go ahead as normal.
"Alternative arrangements will be put in place."
This morning Michael Gove, former education secretary, said: "Obviously we can’t have A-levels, GCSEs or Btecs in the way that we have had them in the past but there are ways of ensuring that we can assess the work that students have done, give them a fair recognition of that and help them on to the next stage of their education."
When asked if that meant exams would be cancelled, he replied: "Yes".
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson will make a statement to MPs tomorrow when the House of Commons is recalled.
He will write to exams regulators Ofqual tonight, where they will then sort out a detailed plan for how exams will be replaced, and what system they will use to decide grades.
It's likely that like last year, teacher-assessed grades will be central to the process.
Under the new shutdown to tackle the variant, primary and secondary schools, as well as colleges, will stay shut until after the February half term.
Nurseries will be unaffected.
Mr Johnson hailed the "great national effort to fight Covid", adding that there is "no doubt that if we were fighting the old variant, our collective efforts were working".
However, he said: "We now have new variant and it's been both frustrating and alarming to see speed with which it's spreading.
"Scientists confirmed it's between 50 and 70 per cent more transmissible, meaning you're much more likely to catch it and to pass it on.
"Our hospitals are under more pressure than at any time since start of pandemic.
"In England alone, the number of patients in hospital with coronavirus has increased by a third in the past week to just under 27,000 Covid patients - 40 per cent higher than first peak.
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"On December 29, more than 80,000 people tested positive - a new record - while the number of deaths is up 20 per cent on last week and will sadly rise further."
Public Health England researchers found people with the new variant are 54 per cent more likely to pass it on to others.
And it's being blamed for surging rates in London and the south-east, where hospitals are nearing crisis point and the sick sent to wards miles away from their homes.
The decision to take kids out of class once again comes just hours after millions returned following the Christmas break.
Mr Johnson said he "completely" understood "the inconvenience and distress this late change will cause millions of parents".
"Parents whose children were in school today may reasonably ask why we didn't take decision sooner," he said.
"We have done everything in our power to keep schools open because we know how important each day in education is to children's life chances.
"The problem is not that schools are unsafe for children - children are still very unlikely to be affected - it's that schools may act as vectors and cause the virus to spread between households."
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The Government has previously been adamant that exams will go ahead in 2021 after the closure of schools meant they had to be scrapped last year.
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In 2020, students were awarded their predicted grades.
But the decision comes after headteachers urged Mr Johnson to call off the tests again.
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Schools in England prepare for mass coronavirus testing with installation of Covid-19 safety measures
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