Exams likely to be altered next year, says Williamson

It is likely that next year's A-levels and GCSEs in England will be altered to be fairer to pupils disrupted by the pandemic, the education secretary has said.

Answering questions from MPs on the Education Select Committee, Williamson said he expects there to be adjustments and mitigations put in place, and it would not be possible to immediately switch back to the situation as it was back in 2019 - before the pandemic.

"Those youngsters who are currently in Year 10 and Year 12 will have suffered disruption as a result of the pandemic," he said.

Some of the ideas which would have been used for this year's exams, before they were cancelled, could be applied, Williamson indicated.

These include slimming down some of the subject areas to be tested, pushing back the dates of exams to increase lesson time, and looking at ways of reflecting that students would have covered different amounts of their courses.

"We'll look at a similar set of measures that can be brought forward in order to support pupils as they take assessments," he told MPs.