The government’s refusal to draw up contingency plans to protect schools and exams before a second lockdown was an unforgivable error, according to this report by the Institute for Government.
Published ahead of the 2021 A-Level and GCSE results and based on interviews with government insiders and education experts, this report exposes how decisions were taken during the most disruptive period in children’s education since the Second World War.
According to the report, the government deserves credit for its swift decision on the definition of key workers whose children could remain in school and delivering more than one million laptops to disadvantaged pupils. But across 2020 and 2021, pupils, parents and teachers were too often left bewildered by last-minute, poorly communicated U-turns on school closures and exams.
However, the failure to make contingency plans in the summer and autumn of 2020 when it was already obvious that fresh school closures and exam cancellations might be needed, was the most “unforgiveable aspect” of its handling of education during the coronavirus pandemic.
The report claims that senior figures, from the prime minister down, opposed the creation of backup plans for assessing A-levels, GCSEs and other qualifications in the event of formal exams not being held, leaving them without options and forced to pass responsibility on to teachers.