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Petition Number: P-06-1228 Petition title: Give secondary teachers a bonus for marking and standardizing summer 2021 official assessments. Text of petition: As a result of the pandemic, teachers in Wales are responsible for marking, standardizing and moderating GCSE, AS and A2 assessments instead of examination boards. This is in addition to their usual teaching timetable and marking the work of other learners. Some teachers have only been released for one hour to carry out the work and, inevitably, it has had to be completed after working hours and on weekends. KS4 and 5 teachers in Wales deserve a bonus for their efforts, just like teachers in Scotland. |
A Ministerial direction to Qualifications in November 2020 led to the cancellation of the summer 2021 exams. A Design and Delivery Advisory Group, made up of head teachers and college leaders was established to provide advice on the awarding of grades in summer 2021.
On 20 January 2021, following the closure of schools and colleges for face-to-face teaching, Kirsty Williams, then Minister for Education announced that learners would have their GCSE, AS and A level qualifications awarded through a Centre Determined Grade model. This meant that grades would be determined by teachers and lecturers based on their assessment of learners’ work.
Schools and colleges (centres) were able to use a range of evidence to determine the grades to be awarded to their learners, including non-examined assessment elements, mock-exams, and classwork. WJEC also offered a set of adapted past papers to allow schools to continue to assess learning within their teaching plans, providing extra support for teachers and learners. Centres were required to provide a sound rationale and evidence base for the award of all Centre Determined Grades so that they could be sure that they had determined the correct grade for a learner and were able to justify the grade awarded should there be a request for a review of the grade or an appeal.
Centres were required by WJEC to implement internal quality assurance processes to promote consistency in grade decisions across the centre (within subjects and across subjects).
Schools and colleges were also the first stage in the appeals process with learners being able to request that their school or college review their provisional Centre Determined Grade if they believe an error had been made in the determination of their grade. Senedd Research published an article on 9 September 2021 which provides some background and results of the Summer 2021 examinations.
In 2021, the Scottish Government commissioned the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to develop an Alternative Certification Model (ACM 2021) for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher for 2021. These are broadly equivalent to GCSEs and A levels. The model is based on teacher judgment, supported by assessment resources and quality assurance. In 2020, the Deputy First Minister directed SQA to issue grades, primarily on the basis of teacher estimates.
On 8 December 2020, in acknowledgement of the additional workload of national qualifications assessment in the absence of 2021 exams, John Swinney, the then former Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, announced an exceptional one-off payment for teachers and lecturers to support delivery of the Alternative Certification Model (ACM) that replaced National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exams (broadly equivalent to GCSEs and A levels) in 2021.
On 6 January 2021, the UK Government confirmed that in summer 2021, students taking GCSE, AS and A levels regulated by Ofqual, would be awarded grades based on an assessment by their teachers. Similar to the position in Wales, teachers were able to use evidence to determine grades from across the duration of the student’s course, including non-exam massessments, past papers or centre devised tasks.
A petition to the UK Parliament, Fund a £400 bonus for every teacher required to mark externally-set exams, which called for a bonus for teachers in England closed on 12 November 2021. It received 3,014 signatures which is below the threshold of 10,000 for a response from the UK Government.
On 6 January 2021, the Minister of Education, Peter Weir MLA announced the cancellation of all Council for the Curriculum, Examinations & Assessment (the Northern Ireland examination board) GCSE, AS and A2 examinations scheduled for Summer 2021. Similar to Wales, the approach to awarding grades in Summer 2021 was based on Centre Determined Grades.
In July 2021, it was reported that in relation to teachers who had been involved in assessing Centre Determined Grades, the Department for Education had ‘ no current plans to make a one-off payment to teachers in excess of their normal salary’.
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