Inflated exam grades let the government ignore its own failures

It was obvious that closing schools would hit the poorest hardest, inflicting permanent damage and deepening inequality. While many private schools and the best state schools maintained a full timetable of lessons throughout lockdown, a study by UCL in June found that 2.3 million pupils — one in five of the total — did virtually no schoolwork at all during the weeks of lockdown. The official response has been to turn a blind eye, and imagine that the damage can be covered up by simply awarding decent exam results.

This year’s students are right to protest about the injustice of the system. From the moment the decision was taken to cancel exams, rather than carry out exams with social distancing, this year’s mess was guaranteed. To judge pupils on teacher assessment is now the only way to proceed. This will, of course, introduce a whole new element of unfairness, but there is, alas, no alternative.

If you saw this year’s exam grades out of context, you might wonder what it was that made students so much brighter and more knowledgeable in 2020 than they were before.