14
The
Linguist
Vol/60
No/2
2021
thelinguist.uberflip.com
LOCKDOWN LEARNING
Why thousands are missing out on language GCSEs and
A levels during lockdown – and what needs to change
Imagine this: You have been studying for
your language A level. You have put in the
extra hours of study and online sessions
throughout the disruption caused by the
pandemic. You are geared up to take the
exams this summer, and rely on this grade for
your university choices. Yet your school has
suddenly informed you that they will not be
able to enter you. This is the situation facing
tens of thousands of students who are due to
take exams in languages they have learned
outside of school – in community settings or
at home. These are often small-entry
languages, classified as 'other languages'.
How is this possible? As exams are not
being held physically during the pandemic,
an alternative system to assess learning and
issue grades is required. Proposals centre on
the principle of centre-assessed grades
(CAGs) – i.e. grades issued by mainstream
schools and other examination centres on the
basis of assessment by the student's
teachers. In most subjects this principle is not
fundamentally problematic. But when it
comes to students taking a subject they have
prepared for outside their mainstream school
the school is not usually in a position to issue
a CAG, as they typically do not have staff
with the skills to assess the student.
So why isn't it possible for mainstream
schools to vouch for a supplementary school's
assessment? This is not a straightforward
solution. Many mainstream schools have little
or no contact with their pupils' supplementary
schools and many supplementary school
teachers are not UK-qualified teachers.
Then there is the wider context of
mainstream schools being closed to all but
the children of critical workers and vulnerable
children. Teachers are under great pressure to
deliver both home schooling and face-to-face
lessons, while leaders are doing all they can
Excluded
others
French 132,036 +1%
Spanish 109,594 +7%
German 42,348 1%
Total 283,978 +3%
Italian 3,459 35%
Urdu 3,212 13%
Arabic 3,034 28%
Polish 2,941 48%
Chinese 2,891 10%
Portuguese 1,538 33%
Russian 1,499 30%
Turkish 1,295 22%
Panjabi 708 18%
Japanese 610 13%
Hebrew 510 +35%
Bengali 462 19%
Greek 459 22%
Gujarati 243 32%
Persian 215 45%
Total 'other' 23,076 28%
Total 307,054 0%
GCSE 2020 entries Decline from 2019
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