‘We let down a lot of kids’, Boris Johnson admits over Covid exam results saga
Boris Johnson admitted his government’s system of awarding exam grades to pupils who did not sit assessments was “clearly disappointing many children” after the results many children received during the pandemic did not reflect their abilities.
The former prime minister said the widely criticized system, which was put in place when students across the country had their education disrupted for months during the pandemic, was one of the things he “deeply regrets”.
Appearing ahead of the Covid-19 inquiry, Mr Johnson was asked about the system that sees GCSE students receive predicted grades rather than exam results.
Criticisms of the system include that private schools gave more generous grades than public schools during the pandemic, while some students faced discrimination in their predicted grades.
“I was not expert enough to comment on whether this was feasible, but it clearly disappointed many children whose grades did not reflect their ability and achievement,” Mr Johnson told the inquiry.
But when pressing for the system to be implemented, Mr Johnson angrily said: “All I would say is… try to find a system that will deliver fair exam results for people who can’t get exams.
“It’s not easy… okay?”
He insisted that closing schools during the pandemic was a “nightmare idea” that he wanted to avoid at all costs.
The former Prime Minister said he was “personally horrified” by the idea as he feared the impact of closed classrooms on the poorest.
Mr Johnson was shown a document prepared by the Department for Education in March 2020 warning that closures would mean almost 9 million students would not be guaranteed an education.
The document warned that 1.3 million of the poorest children would not receive free school meals and that remote learning would fail for many children. It also warned that the most vulnerable children were safer in school and that closing schools would put many at risk of domestic violence or youth crime.
Mr Johnson told the inquiry: “I had a personal fear about closing schools, I thought it was a nightmarish thing and I thought it would do a lot of harm to the people who were finding it hardest to recover and cope.”
Mr Johnson also denied that the government had not prepared for school closures, saying discussions had been ongoing since the outbreak emerged.
Last week, former education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson told the inquiry that he did not ask DfE officials to prepare an assessment of the impact of school closures in early 2020 because advice at the time “did not recommend closure” and No 10 did not commission it.
In his written statement, Sir Gavin described a “confusing 24-hour sea change” from keeping schools open on March 16 to talk of closing them on March 17, followed by an announcement to close schools the following day.
On Tuesday Mr Johnson stressed that work was being done to plan for school closures, saying: “If you look at the sequence from February it is clear that Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) are talking about this possibility, the Cabinet is discussing it in March.
“I remember, of course, that the subject was brought up many times.” He also praised Sir Gavin’s efforts as education secretary, adding: “On the whole, I think the department under Gavin has done a pretty heroic job of dealing with covid, given the challenges we face.”
Mr Johnson added that he had received a note from the DfE on March 15 requesting a meeting on the issue “to consider anything that would be required to legislate the closure of schools”, including security, exams and teacher training.
He added that he did not expect the DfE to wait for instructions from Number 10 before planning the closure and was “surprised that the permanent secretary at the DfE did not think it was necessary to look at the emergency arrangements we have”.
He said: “I think it is clear that closing schools should be considered.
“I was hoping we wouldn’t have to close schools. I thought that was a nightmarish idea.”
Asked if he accepted that there was no cross-government focus on schools until March 2020, Mr Johnson said: “No, I don’t really accept that.”
He added: “I think there had already been talk about the possibility of school closures. And it looked to me like the DfE were preparing for that.”
But Mr Johnson acknowledged the “full horror” of the pandemic “has been slow to dawn on the government”.
“Remember, we didn’t know the impact of this disease on children. We didn’t know much about the contagiousness of the disease. There were so many things that were unknown and difficult to plan for,” he said.
