18th March 2020 15:14
By Blue Tutors
The education secretary has said that keeping schools open in the UK is the best course of action in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Reported on the BBC, Gavin Williamson pointed out that asking all school students to stay home would mean many key workers would need time off to look after their children, which would create more problems.
The current guidance is for schools to allow absences if students or teachers need to self-isolate, but to treat completely shutting schools as more like “snow-days” where any closure would be short-term and precautionary. This is despite the announcement in the Republic of Ireland to close their schools.
The exam season begins in May, but currently the government is telling schools to continue to prepare for exams as if they will be undisrupted. This is a big worry for many families and young people because of the concern about what will happen if they are unable to sit their exams. Mr Williamson said that they are regularly speaking with Ofqual and the goal is to ensure that all students are treated fairly. Previously students have been awarded an expected grade in an exceptional circumstance, and this would be considered.
A further option would be to sit the majority of exams in late June or later, when the situation might not be as bad. However, the current predications are that the virus will not be at its peak until May or June, so this might not make sense. In addition, delaying exams for much longer will increase the pressure on students.
Many schools are considering imposing more online teaching so that students can study remotely and potentially sit their exams online. There are lots of schools which already have electronic resources for their students, and it is not much of a leap to switch to doing everything online.