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Ministers’ plans to change A-level grades to numeric system is ‘unrealistic’ say school leaders
Ministers’ plans to change A-level grades to numeric system is ‘unrealistic’ say school leaders © Provided by The I Education
He criticised the Government for failing to provide the £15bn of additional education funding recommended by “catch-up tsar” Sir Kevan Collins, who resigned in 2021 after saying the money being offered by ministers was insufficient. The Department for Education says it has provided £5bn to fund education recovery.
Reverend Chalke told i: “I think this year’s A-level, and indeed GCSE, students have indeed been desperately unlucky. But ‘unlucky’ is an interesting word because much of this situation has been deliberately inflicted.
“What we are seeing feeding through into next week’s results is the effects of the pandemic, in which kids from the poorest families were at a disadvantage because they were less likely to have their own bedroom, their own electronic device and parents able to work from home, and the catastrophe which was the failure to provide adequate catch-up funding after the pandemic.
“And the consequences are huge. I am sure next week’s results will show a growing disparity in attainment levels for those kids who were able to access resources and those who weren’t. The dice are loaded against a young person from a challenging background and we are absolutely going backwards in terms of closing that attainment gap.”
School leaders said teachers continue to stretch every sinew to help pupils, pointing out that many schools ensured they stayed open for exam students during recent strikes. But experts said teacher shortages are also fueling pre-Covid disparities which have been dramatically exacerbated by the
Reverend Chalke told i: “I think this year’s A-level, and indeed GCSE, students have indeed been desperately unlucky. But ‘unlucky’ is an interesting word because much of this situation has been deliberately inflicted.
“What we are seeing feeding through into next week’s results is the effects of the pandemic, in which kids from the poorest families were at a disadvantage because they were less likely to have their own bedroom, their own electronic device and parents able to work from home, and the catastrophe which was the failure to provide adequate catch-up funding after the pandemic.
“And the consequences are huge. I am sure next week’s results will show a growing disparity in attainment levels for those kids who were able to access resources and those who weren’t. The dice are loaded against a young person from a challenging background and we are absolutely going backwards in terms of closing that attainment gap.”
School leaders said teachers continue to stretch every sinew to help pupils, pointing out that many schools ensured they stayed open for exam students during recent strikes. But experts said teacher shortages are also fueling pre-Covid disparities which have been dramatically exacerbated by the
pandemic. Russell Hobby, chief executive of Teach First, the charity which recruits graduates to teach in deprived areas, told i: “We’re in the midst of a serious shortage of teachers, especially in low-income communities. The tragedy is that for too many of the young people who won’t get the grades they want next week, that was predictable long before the pandemic, but Covid-19 raised the hurdles higher.”
Several experts pointed to the corrosive effects of rising levels of persistent absence – defined as missing 10 per cent or more of school days – in schools since the pandemic, reaching just under 30 per cent in English secondary schools for the last academic year and nearly 40 per cent in special schools.
Rev Chalke said such figures are symptomatic of a wider post-pandemic crisis in mental health and behaviour, both for pupils and parents. He cited the case of a student whose attendance and concentration had plummeted after their mother developed a paranoia that the internet was being used by public bodies to monitor her activities and banned her child from access to any electronic advice, discouraging the youngster from going to school.
Several experts pointed to the corrosive effects of rising levels of persistent absence – defined as missing 10 per cent or more of school days – in schools since the pandemic, reaching just under 30 per cent in English secondary schools for the last academic year and nearly 40 per cent in special schools.
Rev Chalke said such figures are symptomatic of a wider post-pandemic crisis in mental health and behaviour, both for pupils and parents. He cited the case of a student whose attendance and concentration had plummeted after their mother developed a paranoia that the internet was being used by public bodies to monitor her activities and banned her child from access to any electronic advice, discouraging the youngster from going to school.
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