New Normal? No - Just 'worse than normal'!

What an opportunity missed. And worse, we destroyed hopes and trust in the education system.

This year was always going to prove a huge challenge to the education system. No-one could really have foreseen a year where exams would be cancelled and cause the established system of 'assessing' young people's ability to collapse so totally.

However, what I find very upsetting is that, rather than consider some radical and

creative solutions to a novel problem, the system relied on structures and processes that are built to deal with 'normal' years.

A brief sporting aside... A few years ago Italy played England in a rugby international and adopted a completely novel approach to the ruck situation. They exploited an obscure rule that meant their players couldn't be offside and, therefore, could stand on England's side of the breakdown area. The confusion and bewilderment in the England ranks was hilarious to everyone except England fans. We all watched, giggling, as the players failed to adapt and imagine a creative solution to a new problem. At one point the England captain even asked the referee how they could approach the situation - which resulted in the immortal response, "I am the referee, not your coach!"

The education system's response to the Covid crisis has been similarly blinkered and unimaginative.

It has always been clear that predicted grades are generally unreliable. Unsurprising given the multitude of variables in every exam season - ranging from personal circumstances, panic, changing of grade boundaries, illness, poor marking and moderation etc.

Therefore, unless the process of collecting predicted grades is also supported by the submission and reviewing of significant supporting evidence (which appears not to have happened), those grades are never going to be useful for declaring national benchmarks.

To add insult to the process, grades have been awarded based on schools' historic performance.

Why?

Because that makes it easier. Simple as that. And that method disproportionately affects cohorts in schools with greater range of abilities - usually those in more deprived areas. And let me explain why:

I remember two A-Level cohorts in consecutive years. One cohort achieved a smattering of A*-A grades and nothing lower than a grade D. The next cohort achieved nothing higher than a grade B - but I was equally delighted with those results because they were strong results for that particular group. If Covid had happened in the year of that second cohort could I have put forward a bunch of A grades because that's what the previous cohort achieved? Presumably yes! But, if one reverses those cohorts, the inverse would have been true and those predicted A grades would almost certainly have been downgraded.

OK, so it's easy to criticise and analyse what went wrong. But were there any possible alternative approaches?

That England rugby team solved the problem in the second half. Having their coach to give them some pointers helped them completely change the game plan - a totally different approach ultimately led to an easy victory.

So what radically different approach could have been taken?

Why not cancel the academic year? Or put it on pause until we could return to some semblance of 'normality' - which appears to be coming in September?

Most readers will have automatically thought, "Don't be stupid!" But why would that be stupid? Why does the school year have to start in September? Because that's what we've always done? So what?!

We put the rest of the economy on pause but, for some reason, we insisted on the education process fitting to its usual schedule. But Covid has completely wrecked our usual societal schedule for dealing with those coming out of education. What use an 18 year old receiving their grades now?

To go to university? But they're not sure how/whether courses will begin in September. Do we really want students to begin their studies in a weird mix of online and face-to-face learning? Is that going to be be of benefit in the long-term? What about any students who intended on studying abroad during this academic year? (No chance!)

And what about those intending to pursue an apprenticeship? Companies aren't exactly in a strong position to: a) take on apprentices; b) provide learning and mentoring opportunities; c) liaise with colleges and universities to monitor and run apprenticeships in an effective manner.

And for those intending on going into employment? What hope for them?

So we've shattered trust in the system and also unintentionally limited life chances for an entire cohort. Well done us.

Furthermore, this was an opportunity to recreate the educational cycle. We could have torn up the tired and pointless set-up of terms - evidence points to the long summer holidays being detrimental to many young people's educational and social well-being. And the exams could have moved out of the daft 'hayfever' timing and into Autumn.

This lack of brave, creative thinking is symptomatic of a government and its structures - unable to adapt to develop a 'new' normal. The only thing that's 'new' is that the normal is working even less well than it was before.

Shame on us and our leaders.