Senior Tory brands government handling of schools ‘shambles’ as minister confirms cancellation of GCSEs and A-levels

The government’s handling of schools has been denounced as a “huge shambles” by a senior Tory MP.

The damning assessment from the chair of the Commons education committee, Robert Halfon, came as it was confirmed that GCSE and A-level exams are to be cancelled in England for the second summer in a row.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson will confirm in a statement to parliament on Wednesday that he has told regulator Ofqual to draw up alternative arrangements, but the precise form they will take may not be known for some days or weeks.

In a Downing Street press conference, Boris Johnson declined to offer a guarantee that all children will be back in the classroom by the summer.

Instead, the prime minister said he felt “optimism and fundamental hope” that the situation would be different by the spring.

Meanwhile, the Department for Education refused to back down on plans for exams for BTecs and other vocational and technical qualifications to continue throughout January, despite calls from colleges, unions and students for them to be halted on grounds of fairness and safety.

The Association of Colleges told ministers the exams, involving around 135,000 students this month, were “simply untenable”, while a parliamentary petition calling for their replacement with teacher-assessed grades gathered more than 125,000 signatures. 

The closure of all primaries and secondaries in England until at least 22 February was announced by Mr Johnson on Monday evening, less than 36 hours after he went on the television to insist that schools were safe and less than 12 hours after many primaries reopened their doors to children after the Christmas break.

Mr Williamson wrote to Ofqual to inform them that GCSEs and A-levels must not take place and ask them to draw up alternative arrangements for the award of qualifications this summer, which are expected to rely heavily on teacher assessment.

Ofqual, which carries out the process independently of ministers to avoid political interference, said: “We know how difficult this must be for students, teachers and lecturers. We wish at all costs to avoid arrangements for this summer’s GCSEs, A levels and VTQs [vocational and technical qualifications] inflicting further disadvantage on students. 

“We are considering a number of options to ensure the fairest possible outcome in the circumstances. We will update as soon as we can."

It is not thought likely that there will be any attempt to repeat the use of a computer algorithm, which sparked chaos last year after it produced results regarded as unfair to many pupils and had to be swiftly replaced by teacher assessments.

Mr Halfon told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour: “I think it's been a huge shambles. This has got to stop, the government has got to offer a consistent policy that doesn't change every couple of days, let alone weeks.”

He added: “Parents, teachers, support staff and children have been marched up to the top of the hill, only to be marched down again and enormous pressure has been put on them.

“I feel enormously sorry for parents, teachers and support staff for what has gone on. I’ve been campaigning for schools to be open because I worry about the risks to mental health, loss of learning, wellbeing, the safeguarding hazards – because we know that children at home sometimes are subject to domestic abuse, online harms and perhaps joining county lines gangs.

“What I want now to happen is for the government to use this time to roll out a vaccine programme for teachers and support staff, get the testing regime working, set out an educational route map out of coronavirus and a long-term plan for education and skills.”

Asked to guarantee that all pupils will be back in classrooms before the summer holidays, Mr Johnson told the No 10 press conference: “We think that with the vaccination programme we can do a huge amount to take out of the path of the virus those who are most vulnerable. That clearly offers opportunities to our country to do things differently.

“I am full of the same optimism and fundamental hope about the position that I think Chris [Whitty] has adopted and I really think that things will be very different in the spring and that’s what I would certainly say to every parent in the land.”