Wales’ GCSE, AS and A-level exams in summer 2021 are to be cancelled, with grades based on classroom assessments.
Education Minister Kirsty Williams said it was impossible to guarantee a level playing field for exams due to the ongoing impact of the Covid pandemic.
Head teachers would work on a “national approach” to ensure consistency, she said.
Assessments will be done under teacher supervision, and will begin in the second half of the spring term.
They will be externally set and marked but delivered within the classroom.
She added cancelling exams would also give time for teaching to continue through the summer term.
Teachers would have flexibility on when to take the assessments, within the “context of results timelines”.
However one teaching union questioned whether the announcement would mean ending up with “exams by stealth”.
Related Articles:
- Wales scraps GCSE, AS and A-level exams for 2021 to ensure ‘fairness’ (Sky News)
- Exam cancellation prompts fears over teachers’ workload (BBC News)
- Welsh move to cancel GCSE and A-level exams puts pressure on No 10 (The Guardian)
- Plaid Cymru pledge to scrap GCSEs if it wins power at Senedd election (BBC News)
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