Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support his Department is going to give to students who will be taking exams in 2022.

The Government remains clear that exams are the fairest method to assess students. We know that students and teachers will be working hard in preparation for exams or assessments in 2022, and we will make sure that the interests of students are at the centre of our considerations. It is important that students in this cohort are able to obtain qualifications safely and fairly. We will continue to monitor the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on all students to ensure that those due to take exams in 2022 are supported to move to the next stage of their lives fairly.

To support students to catch up with their education, the Government has announced a catch-up package worth £1 billion to support children and young people. This includes a ‘Catch-up Premium’ worth £650 million and a £350 million National Tutoring Programme for disadvantaged pupils. We have also announced that we will provide a further programme of catch-up over the next financial year. This will involve a further £300 million of new money to early years, schools and providers of 16-19 further education for tutoring and we will work in collaboration with the education sector to develop, as appropriate, specific initiatives for summer schools and a COVID premium to support catch-up.

We recognise that these extended school and college closures have had a huge impact on children and young people’s education, which will take more than a year to make up. We will work in collaboration with the wider education sector to develop a long-term plan to make sure children and young people have the chance to make up their education over the course of this Parliament.

We have also appointed an Education Recovery Commissioner, Sir Kevan Collins, who will advise Ministers on the approach for education recovery, with a particular focus on helping students catch up on learning lost as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Understanding the impact of the COVID-19 disruption is a key priority for the Government. The Department has commissioned an independent research agency to analyse catch-up needs and monitor progress over this academic year.