Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of enabling an Ukrainian student who is taking English language exams for the first time an additional 10 per cent of time to complete their papers; and what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that those taking exams in a second language have sufficient time to complete exam papers.

Many awarding organisations and qualifications, including all GCSEs, AS and A levels and those awarding them, are regulated by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual). Ofqual sets the standards and rules that awarding organisations need to meet when they design, deliver and award regulated qualifications.

Ofqual’s General Conditions of Recognition (Condition G2) states that an awarding organisation must ensure that all pupils taking its qualifications in England are assessed in English, except where use of another language is permitted, for example, because it is one of the primary objectives of the qualification for the pupil to gain knowledge of, skills in, and understanding of that language. The full list of General Conditions is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ofqual-handbook/section-g-setting-and-delivering-the-assessment.

Access arrangements may be appropriate for pupils with limited fluency in English, for example, the use of a bilingual dictionary. Applications for access arrangements are approved by awarding organisations ahead of the examination or assessment. The Joint Council for Qualification’s Access Arrangements and Reasonable Adjustments regulations sets out the assessment criteria and evidence required for different types of arrangements which examination centres can apply for on behalf of a pupil. The regulations are available at: https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/AA_regs_22-23_May23_revision_FINAL.pdf.

Schools and colleges are responsible for deciding which qualifications they enter pupils for, based on what is in their best interests. Schools will want to carefully consider the individual circumstances of pupils before deciding the appropriateness of an examination entry and will make these decisions on a case-by-case basis. Schools and colleges should also contact the relevant awarding organisation(s) to discuss the arrangements that may be suitable for individual pupils.