The government’s decision to push back GCSEs and A-levels by three weeks next year has been criticised by the Jewish Leadership Council’s schools network, Pajes.
Rabbi David Meyer, executive director of Pajes, said the move “offers too little” to students taking exams in the summer.
Exams will now start on June 7 and end by July 2 for most students, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced this week. One maths and one English GCSE will be sat before the May half-term.
But Rabbi Meyer said that what was needed was a “defintive decision that addressed the significant concerns caused by months of lost study and most importantly protected the mental health and wellbeing of our students. Sadly, the proposed resolution falls far short of expectations.”
It was, he added, “hard to understand the rationale for not reducing the amount of material to be studied nor extending the choice for exams questions, which would seem to have been a simple and equitable solution.”
The scheduling of GCSE maths and English and the fact that one of the three weeks was half term meant t hat “despite the hype, there is no gained time for study,” he said. For students, the policy would “result in enforced cramming to complete the curriculum, an extended period of exam pressures, delayed results and a reduced summer holiday”.
The proposals were likely to make a “challenging situation even worse”, he said.
Patrick Moriarty, headteacher of JCoSS, said the delay was “helpful as far as it goes” but the gains were “marginal”.
He believed “further contingency measures are going to be necessary to create a level playing field between schools and students, eg more options on exam papers, possible reductions in content, what happens if some schools do have to close — and these should have been announced last month, not delayed until December.”
He said that trust between schools and the Department for Education had been “structurally weakened by the mishandling of exams and school reopening over the past six months, and this announcement, though broadly welcome, is unlikely to repair the damage.”
Yavneh College was still thinking through the ramifications of the announcement, said its executive headteacher Spencer Lewis. “The very small amount of additional time which includes a half term week does seem to be a very light touch approach to what is nationally a serious problem.”
While Yavneh was not significantly behind in teaching the curriculum, “obviously, that does not apply across the country,” he observed.
Some had feared that a delay might cause problems for summer Israel tours which take place after exams.
But Shelley Marsh, director of the JLC’s youth network Reshet, said it would “not have an adverse effect on Jewish youth provision”. Those in the youth sector understood the amended time-frame and were working on “meaningful and engaging programmes” for the summer.
