Children should be awarded GCSEs based upon their predicted grades

GCSEs should be awarded to pupils from this year's cohort based on predicted grades following the government's 'extraordinary' step of cancelling exams, say academics from the UCL Institute of Education. The researchers from the UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO) say that this is a better solution than rescheduling exams for later in the year, which could negatively impact children, particularly those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.  "Yesterday, the Department for Education took the extraordinary step of cancelling GCSE exams and some children will suffer the consequences of this throughout their lifetime. It is obviously a very tricky situation, and any solution the government comes up with will be less than perfect," says Professor John Jerrim (UCL Institute of Education/CEPEO). "Our collective opinion is that children in the 2019/20 cohort should be award GCSEs based upon their predicted grades. This has the obvious advantage of being relatively cheap and easy to do. Weighing up the different options this seems to be as fair as the alternatives." The academics say that the government is likely to be concerned with awarding predicted grades because they might not be able to regulate grade inflation. Some students' grades could be more inflated than others, which could negatively impact those from less advantaged backgrounds.