Students taking A-level and GCSE exams next year could see their assessments adapted to compensate for learning loss, the acting chief regulator of Ofqual has suggested.

Simon Lebus said the process of recovering lost learning during the coronavirus pandemic is “going to take several years”.

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He told MPs: “So as far as 2022 is concerned, the thinking at the moment is about adaptations along the lines that had been originally contemplated for this year when exams were still to go ahead.

“That’s based on the reality of the cohort taking exams next year will have suffered considerable disruption to their learning.

“Though we would hope not on the scale and the level that has been suffered by this year’s cohort so that it would be the reasonable thing to carry out some form of public exams, but that they would be adapted to reflect the learning disruption that has taken place.”

In the same meeting of the Commons Education Select Committee, schools minister Nick Gibb told MPs that he could “absolutely confirm” that the government was not planning to scrap GCSEs over the long term.