James O'Brien 10am - 1pm
Gavin Williamson cancelling exams was a mistake, teacher tells James O'Brien
25 February 2021, 11:13
Exams shouldn't have been cancelled, teacher tells James O'Brien
Gavin Williamson's decision to cancel exams in England was a "mistake", a teacher has told James O'Brien.
Jack in Derby made the comments after the Education Secretary confirmed on Wednesday that the Government had devised way to grade GCSE and A-level students after exams were cancelled due to Covid.
The new system aims to place more trust in teachers to decide their students' futures and represents a moving away from a controversial algorithm that threw results day 2020 into chaos.
Jack told James: "My thoughts are that the cancelling of exams last year was a mistake and the cancelling of them this year is equally a mistake.
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"It shouldn't have happened really but it kind of seemed inevitable from the very start of this year that they were going to get cancelled."
Asked what he would do if in charge, Jack said that he would have allowed the exams to ahead and "allowed the exam board to make adjustments to take into account the lack of education students have had due to the disruption".