RANT - This is about cancelling exams - in my capacity as a personal tutor to (usually wonderful, both millennials and gen Zs) young people for 12 years now I've had to help with my fair share of dramas. People are complicated and non-linear and ALL sorts of stuff happens (1/14)
every so often, someone has to interrupt. That means something is going on in their lives which means that they can't carry on with or focus on their study and they drop out, to rejoin the course the next academic year. Depends on situation but I usually try to avoid this (2/14)
It is a year of their lives gone. Gone. Time's precious, for a young person SO precious. I always make them really think about what they are doing, and I play (carefully) devil's advocate and try to talk them out of it, before coming clean later if they don't cave. (3/14)
Now I don't know what's going on with this "cancel exams this year" vibe coming from the Government but it sounds like they are essentially writing off a year of ALL the kids' lives. There are kids doing GCSEs, folk doing A-levels, and folk who need to retake core GCSE (4/14)
First of all, you need people to go to University, the University sector's worth more to the UK than agriculture (check it) so if you hold UK students back a year, well, that will have significant effect on the UK economy. Bigger than agriculture. Check it. (5/14)
Second, all the kids who need GCSE maths for more practical vocations vital to our economy, what will happen to them? Will they get employed? Will Boris force employers to employ them? He hasn't even forced pubs to close... (6/14)
Thirdly, what about (I respect these people most) folks coming back to exams who didn't get the grades first time around and who are giving it a second stab because they've decided that they need to get qualified. How will this help motivate them? (7/14)
To sit there in Whitehall and to decide that "well it's extraordinary times, and we can't allow these people to sit exams, and that over-rules everything" it's not good enough. It is simply not good enough. (8/14)
Since Monday my group has been working from home and we've figured out how to continue with seminars, journal clubs, research collaborations, we've even figured out how to have coffee together, so far no money spent (possibly moving up to a few quid per month for zoom) (9/14)
My University is desperately trying to figure out how to examine people this summer, as well as finish their teaching. We will find a way, because we spend so much time with young people we see them blossom, their potential, and we know a year for them is priceless (10/14)
In the same way, we need to find a way to teach and to examine GCSEs and A-levels this year. We have the technology. We CANNOT hold an entire year of our brightest and best back through mediocrity. It's going to be hard, but we can do it. (11/14)
However it will require leadership and support from the top. When KCL made a statement saying there would be no normal exams this summer, we were super skeptical, but they had to. We still haven't figured out entirely how it'll work but we will make it work. (12/14)
Contrast that with the government cancelling exams, with no assurances, no plan B, no promises. This is a year of young people's lives. It needs to be a priority. They need more than what the government are saying now. (13/14)
I want a pledge that 15-18 yo students are 1) taught. 2) take exams and 3) get their results before September 2020. Government should pay for wifi for less advantaged kids and teaching should be online. Anything else will be a betrayal to our young people. (14/14)
