The Mayors of Greater Manchester and Liverpool have joined the call for vocational exams to be cancelled this month
In a joint statement Steve Rotheram and Andy Burnham said that it is unfair to ask these students to go into colleges when everyone else is being told to stay at home and schools and colleges are closed to the majority of students. This will cause unnecessary anxiety and concern just when they need to be able to focus.
They added:
“Secondly, students in the Liverpool and Greater Manchester City Regions have faced restrictions for far longer, with more time being spent out of college, than students in other parts of the country, therefore these exams will not be a level playing field.”
Earlier today the Chief Executive of the Association of colleges , David Hughes wrote to Gillian Keegan, Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills calling for an immediate rethink on the decision to go ahead with this month’s vocational exam series.
Vocational and Technical exams begin today, despite the government’s announcement last night to put the country into a third national lockdown and move learning online for the majority of students.
“To go ahead with this exam series now would also be unfair on students. The stress
of the pandemic will undoubtedly affect their performance, probably has affected
their preparation, and could lead to results which are potentially very unfair. On top
of that, the different treatment of these VTQ students compared with their peers
sitting GQs in the summer feels wrong and hard to defend.” says the letter adding:
There is a third pragmatic reason why I think you should cancel these exams; many
colleges and schools will struggle to find staff willing to invigilate and manage the
sittings. We know that lots of colleges rely on volunteer invigilators, many of whom
are retired and therefore vulnerable. College leaders are very reluctant to ask them
and their staff to put themselves at risk, and many have already made it clear that
they will not invigilate.
