Answer these questions about our exams and grades – A Level student Sam Day

The Government’s announcement on Wednesday that schools were to close came as no surprise: for the last few days my school has struggled with staff shortages, forcing whole year groups to stay at home, while teachers scrambled to set up systems to allow us to continue our studies at home.

This was a decision that was inevitable, and a common sense one, but the continued indecision – and lack of clarity – from the Government has left us all in a state of confusion and uncertainty about the future.

In his speech on Wednesday, Boris Johnson announced that the exams in May and June will not take place, leaving us only with a vague commitment that we will get the qualifications that we need for life to continue as normal once this crisis has ended.

But this does not provide any assurance whatsoever; will we be given our predicted grades (and if so, will these be the grades predicted on UCAS applications for university or more recent ones based off current performance), the grades from the most recent set of mock exams or will we be assessed on coursework created at home?

By Thursday morning, Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary was unable to alleviate any of these uncertainties, saying only that more information will be released later.

This level of indecision is simply not good enough. It has left thousands of A-Level and GCSE students stranded, without direction or reassurance.

Teachers are unsure of the future, diligently setting work and sending us resources that they are unsure that we will need and are trying their best to field questions to which they have no answers.

One of my teachers, who is at home self-isolating, sent out messages of support and assistance to her class, stepping up where our leaders have failed despite the confusion as well as her own situation.

Of course, none of the options for the future are perfect.

Predicted grades are almost always proved wrong after exams; a study by UCL’s Institute of Education in 2016 found that only 16 per cent of students achieved their predicted grades. Mock exams are similarly difficult. They are seen by the majority of students as a part of the learning process, allowing us to get used to timings and the style of questions, not an accurate or fair representation of academic ability.

Assessment based on coursework will simply not be possible for all subjects and appears to be too difficult to organise in time. On top of all of this is the fact that we have spent almost two years with teachers who we all respect greatly, sacrificing our nights and weekends to study, and the lack of any closure to this has left many students upset and frustrated.

However, a decision on the future before the announcement on Wednesday night would have been a way to limit uncertainty, rather than sending thousands of teenagers and teachers into an uneasy limbo.

At a time when all of our lives are uncertain, the Government has only increased the anxiety and stress of my generation around one of the few features of this crisis that the authorities can control.

We are not expecting Boris Johnson to find time in his speech to go through the complexities of delivering A-level and GCSE grades, but the Education Secretary must be able to give more information about what has been the predominant thing in our lives for the past two years and what will dictate our future.

To just kick the can down the road demonstrates a lack of competence, organisation and care from Johnson’s government.

However, as a generation who have across our academic lives had to endure crippling cuts to education – leading to teachers being forced to buy basic resources such as whiteboards and pens – as well as chaos over Michael Gove’s changes to exams, this is not surprising. Education in this country is by, default, in a state of disarray.

And most worryingly, this is indicative of the Government’s muddled and complicated approach to the whole coronavirus crisis. Over the past week, advice has been nebulous and often contradictory. Take, for example, the policy of ‘shielding’ over-70s that was floated over the weekend, before we were told that this was not the position after all.

Or the fact that, on Wednesday, Johnson said he wasn’t ruling anything out when asked about a lockdown of London. Yet, by Thursday lunchtime, the government was saying that London wasn’t going to enter lockdown.

This is an unprecedented and difficult time, and we deserve clarity, transparency and strong leadership from our government. Instead, politicians like Gavin Williamson seem almost instinctively drawn to passing the buck and making excuses.

This feeble lack of competent governance has plunged millions of GCSE and A-Level teachers and students into panic and insecurity. Now more than ever we require role models from our leaders and so, on behalf of my fellow students, I implore Mr Williamson to begin fulfilling the Ministerial brief in which he has so far been found so sorely wanting.

Sam Day is a student at Accord Sixth Form College, Ossett.