Ofqual plans for 2020 qualifications announced - AoC responds

Today (Friday 3 April), Ofqual has announced its plans for assessments and qualifications for the 2020 summer exam series. It requires schools and colleges to provide centre assessment grades for their students. In response to Ofqual’s announcement on GCSE and A Levels, AoC Chief Executive, David Hughes said: “These proposals are a sensible and pragmatic approach that places high trust in teachers, colleges and schools. We know that colleges will implement this process rigorously and professionally in order to generate accurate and fair outcomes. It is vital that students understand fully how the process will be run and are confident it will be fair and robust. We want to ensure no student is disadvantaged. As well as GCSEs and A Levels, hundreds of thousands of students were due to take vocational and technical qualifications and functional skills this summer. Every one of those students needs reassurance that their studies will result in the qualifications they have worked so hard for, so we are working hard with Ofqual, DfE and awarding organisations to agree a way forward and look forward to guidance being issued shortly. In any grading system which relies in part on teacher guidance, we know that there is potential for some groups of students to do less well than others. Ofqual’s equalities impact assessment needs to take into account the research evidence on this, such as the findings that there is systemic under-prediction for black and minority and disadvantaged candidates in university admissions. We will work with others to correct for this so that no student faces additional disadvantage.” You can read our full analysis on the plans here.