Consultation analysis on arrangements for an autumn 2021 exam series
GCSE, AS, A level, and the Advanced Extension award 2021 summer exams were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Along with the cancellation of summer exams, the government announced that students would be assigned teacher assessed grades in the summer and that an autumn exam series would run in autumn 2021.
Ofqual conducted a consultation on arrangements for the autumn 2021 exams to seek views on how the exam series should run. The consultation aimed to collect the public’s opinions on Ofqual’s proposals on who would be eligible as well as when and how the autumn exams should take place.
Alma Economics was commissioned by Ofqual to analyse the responses to the consultation. We analysed more than 1,000 responses which we carefully reviewed in full. We created self-explanatory charts for the closed questions, and we summarised the key themes of the open-ended questions. In addition to reading all responses in full, using a Python programme we developed, we also created a “codebook” recording all qualitative themes identified by responses to assist with clear coverage of all the issues.
This work helped identify the best way the exams should run in autumn to create equal opportunities in education for all students, despite the difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Following the consultation, Ofqual confirmed that students who receive a teacher assessed grade this summer will be eligible to take GCSE, AS or A level exams in the same subject in autumn 2021. This also applies to those students who exam boards believe would have sat exams in summer 2021 had they not been cancelled.
Find more on the consultation here.
The report is available here.