Opinion | With school exams postponed or cancelled over coronavirus pandemic, students worry about their university prospects
- Universities offer students places based on predicted grades and results obtained in past exams as hard evidence of ability
- Exam boards are developing formulas to calculate grades, but many students are anxious about what this may mean for their future study plans
While some exam boards in Hong Kong and elsewhere have postponed secondary school exams, many students around the world are trying to deal with the unprecedented situation of having their exams cancelled as part of government efforts to slow the spread of Covid-19 infection.
The exam-focused education system has left students feeling adrift. And the cancellations have brought into focus school-based assessment, where teachers are being required to compute a final grade.
Boards are developing a “formula” to calculate grades for each student that will reflect their performance as closely as possible, says the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual), a government department that regulates qualifications, exams and tests in England. And the metrics will be applied consistently across all schools.
“This will include the steps we would like teachers to follow and more detailed guidance on how to consider the full range of evidence they will have available when submitting their assessment grades,” it said.
Such announcements are hardly reassuring for students and parents anxious about the uncertainty surrounding grades, and how they will impact university admissions.
