Next week, more than a quarter of a million young people who have been studying for A levels will be given grades for which they have sat no exams.
They will be awarded their results based on teacher assessments moderated using Ofqual’s standardisation model, which aims to ensure grades are in line at national and school subject level. Historic subject achievement data will be used for each school, and this may result in grades being adjusted based on a school’s past performance in that subject if they appear to be inflated.
If it sounds unfair, that’s because it is. And if this week’s Scottish SQA results are anything to go by, the fallout from this cobbled-together system will cause no end of controversy. But, to be fair, almost anything the exams watchdog could have come up with in response to the effects of this pandemic would be seen to be wanting.
Covid-19 is wreaking havoc on this generation of young people. They are seeing their futures compromised and everyday lives curtailed on a scale that’s hard to comprehend.
They have had the last months of their schooling interrupted and have missed out on those rites of passage that everyone who came before them took for granted. I don’t think anyone would ever have thought they’d miss exams, but when everything you’ve been building up to is suddenly snatched away, there is a real feeling of loss. And for those students who may not have been the most diligent and were banking on pulling it out of the bag at the end, it will feel crueller still.
Not only will they have had no exams, they have been robbed of in-person lessons, the traditional leavers’ events or any chance to say a proper goodbye to one another. Their journey through education has well and truly hit the buffers. And what about the road to independence? They’ve been stuck at home with their families, not able to go out, go wild and test those boundaries. How on earth do they break free of the apron strings when they have been tied ever more tightly in lockdown?
School-leavers who choose to go to university will have a very different undergraduate experience. Online lectures will dominate. They will still live away but then they will be expected to live and study in a bubble with people on their course to reduce the spread of the virus. Freshers’ week and other student events will be online. They will get none of the fun or rich experiences of going to university. Their world will be a shrunken, faded version of what went before.
The usual alternative is off the table, too. There’s no point taking a year out to go abroad in a gap year - or a “crap year” as it’s being described - when it’s hard to travel anywhere.
Those who want to go straight to work will find their options limited, too. With furlough ending and redundancies snowballing, jobs are hard to find, especially with no experience. They won’t be able to easily move and work throughout the EU like previous generations either because that’s yet another thing that’s been snatched away from them.
If that’s not bad enough, on top of all this, these young people are getting blamed for the spread of the virus because they are going out and meeting up. They’re teenagers, for goodness sake, give them a break. Anyone who thinks they can be cooped up for ever and should be taking the responsibility that should sit firmly on the shoulders of the adults in charge needs a good talking-to.
The focus has been on the effect the government’s draft plans for shielding this winter would have had on the over-50s. That’s not who we should be feeling sorry for: the boomers and Generation X have had their fun. Instead, spare a thought for a generation of young people who have had to sacrifice so much and have so little to look forward to.
Who would want their youth back now?
This article originally appeared in the 7 August 2020 issue under the headline “Covid has been cruel to the class of 2020 - let’s give them a break”
