Labour calls on government to cancel BTEC exams to prevent unfair grades

Labour has called on the government to cancel Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) exams this year in a bid to “prevent fundamentally unfair grades” amid tough Covid restrictions in England.

Boris Johnson announced a fresh lockdown in England on Monday evening, including the closure of schools and colleges, which he described as “vectors of transmission”. GCSE and A-Level exams were cancelled.

But the government has not cancelled BTEC exams. The Department for Education tweeted: “Vocational exams in England will continue as planned in January. Students taking exams should attend as scheduled.”

Update: The government has now announced that schools and colleges can choose whether to hold BTEC exams. Labour’s Toby Perkins has described the move as “cowardly”.

Labour has pointed out that “no adaptations” have been made to BTEC exams “despite many students having experienced disrupted learning due to periods of self-isolation” and colleges now being closed.

“Colleges have had to make adaptations, such as the introduction of rotas, in order to make practical teaching Covid-19 secure, meaning many pupils have had less practical teaching than would be expected,” the party highlighted.

The opposition has criticised the government for failing to set out support for the 135,000 students still preparing to take exams, nor for colleges that will need to cover additional costs to enable social distancing and extra cleaning.

Labour’s Toby Perkins, shadow minister for apprenticeships and lifelong learning, said: “BTEC exams simply cannot go ahead safely and fairly this week. The government must cancel them and work with schools and colleges to develop a genuinely fair alternative for pupils this summer.

“When the Prime Minister announced the cancellation of summer GCSE and A-level exams, he did not even mention BTEC students taking exams this week. Once again BTEC students who have missed out on lots of core practical teaching this year are an afterthought for this government.”

The Association of Colleges has also demanded that exams be cancelled and replaced with an alternative system of classroom assessment, with chief executive David Hughes saying “it is not safe for them to go ahead and it is not fair for students nor for staff”.

Asking how college staff could be expected to invigilate or students could feel safe, Hughes added: “I cannot see any reason strong enough for them to go ahead, and to cancel the summer exams and not the January series is inexplicable.

“Attendance anyway would be low, and travel for students and staff will be difficult, so I hope that the Department for Education recognises the impossibility of the situation and announces a cancellation as soon as possible.”

A number of colleges have already taken local decisions to cancel on-site January exams, such as Wigan and Leigh College, which said “we do not believe that we can safely conduct large scale examination sessions under the current circumstances”.