GCSE students to continue receiving Covid exam help

The education secretary has said GCSE students should continue to be given formula and equation sheets to help in their exams.

This year had been the final year students were expecting to receive that post-Covid support.

But in a letter to England’s exams regulator, Ofqual, Bridget Phillipson said it should continue for at least the next three years.

Teaching unions welcomed the move and said it would hopefully lead to a permanent change.

In a letter to Ofqual chief regulator Sir Ian Bauckham, Ms Phillipson said the pandemic "continues to have an impact on students".

And the government's curriculum-and-assessment review, which will report back next year, would then advise on potential "long-term changes".

Ms Phillipson asked Ofqual to continue providing formula and equation sheets to maths, physics and combined-science students sitting their exams in 2025, 2026 and 2027.

The exam aids were first introduced in 2022, to limit the impact of Covid-19 on learning.

Last year, the previous, Conservative government said the exam aids would no longer be available to students from 2025 and pre-Covid exam arrangements would return.

But Ms Phillipson said that would be "premature" because of the continuing disruption caused by the pandemic.

Ofqual launched a two-week consultation on the plans on Thursday.

In his response to Ms Phillipson, Sir Ian said it was important for teachers and students to have clarity on exam changes "as soon as possible".

Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Pepe Di’Iasio said the move was one his union had "long argued for" and exams "should not be a test of memory but of the ability of students to apply knowledge and learning".

National Association of Head Teachers policy head Sarah Hannafin also welcomed the change, saying there was "no need" for students to memorise formulae and equations.