Has the pandemic changed the school exam system for the better?

Your editorial suggests that a return to the full A-level exam system will reduce bias against black pupils. But the exam system contains its own “bias” in that it purports only to measure a pupil’s grasp of a subject at one point in time.

Grades depend not only on raw ability, but on the quality of the teaching available to the student; the opportunities for study away from school; and crucially on motivation – which in turn will be affected by family background, the availability of role models, and even nutrition. Oh yes, and on whether students suffer from stereotype threat, anxiety and poor performance on the day.

Curriculum reforms in 2000 positioned A-levels as a measure of achievement rather than ability. It seems that Covid has to a large degree done the same. Perhaps that is all we need?

It is a bizarre idea that the main purpose of school exams should be to help universities decide whom to admit. It seems to me that A-levels based on achievement serve society as a whole pretty well. This seems like an excellent opportunity to “build back better” by learning from the experience of the pandemic.

Rachael Padman

Newmarket, Suffolk

TV coverage of the A-level results included interviews with students who said they deserved their grades because they had worked hard or had had a difficult time due to the pandemic. I totally agree that it has had a terrible impact on students, but A-levels are not a reward for effort or difficulties encountered.

They are a measure of the extent to which a student has gained a grasp of a subject and they are used as an indicator of whether they would gain a deeper understanding of the subject at university. At the best of times, they are an imperfect measure and other factors should be taken into the account.

Should degrees be awarded on the basis of effort or difficulties encountered rather than on the depth of understanding of a subject? Should doctors be those who tried hard or those who understand medicine?

Perhaps grading pupils should be limited to selecting students for a particular university, with every applicant allowed to do the first year of their chosen course. Progress beyond the first year could be limited to those who are gaining a sufficient understanding of their subject.

Jon Hawksley

London

It’s quite obvious the only reason that Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) is insisting on putting Geronimo the alpaca down is that if the current method of testing for bovine TB in animals is inaccurate, it will possibly result in a vast number of compensation claims from farmers and animal owners whose livestock have been wrongly diagnosed.

Indeed, Karlie, an 11-year-old alpaca who tested positive using the current Enferplex method and was put down in 2018, was found not to have had the disease post-mortem.

The fact that Defra is sticking to its guns (in this case, quite literally) despite compelling evidence that Enferplex test results are sometimes not accurate, is absolutely appalling, indefensible and immoral.

Linda Evans

Address supplied

Regarding the disproportionate amount of top A-level grades from private schools, why not exclude the pupils from these privileged institutions from top universities? After all, they are a very small proportion of the school population. It may also start a levelling up of the whole education system.

Mike Flisher

Blyth, Northumberland

Gavin Williamson has dropped a threat to force universities to refund tuition fees if they fail to restore face-to-face teaching after a regulator said he had no such power.

Poor Gavin. Neutered.

Ian Boyd

Bristol

Several mobile phone operators have announced the reintroduction of roaming charges now we have left the EU. Was this decision the result of increased costs imposed on them as a direct result of us leaving, or an opportunity to increase profits now they are unfettered by EU rules?

Geoff Forward

Stirling