Cornwall BTEC student 'having to choose between exams and family's health'
GCSEs and A-Levels have been cancelled... but BTEC exams are still going ahead
Last updated 6th Jan 2021
A student from Cornwall says she is 'having to choose between her career and the health of her family' because of her BTEC exams.
GCSEs and A-Levels have been cancelled because of the third nationwide lockdown, but BTEC exams are still going ahead.
Chloe Dove is a level 3 health and social care diploma student from Par, and has already lost her aunt to coronavirus.
She chose not to sit an exam on Wednesday morning because of the health risk to her family.
"I have vulnerable people in my house, I have two vulnerable family members, and I've actually lost my auntie to Covid, so obviously we've been extra careful.
"On behalf of myself and many other BTEC students, we just don't feel safe to enter an exam hall where we're forced to be sat with a range of people, we don't know where other people have been going and everyone is afraid.
"Everyone's anxiety is through the roof because we don't know what is going to happen."
Chloe Dove, BTEC student from Cornwall
Chloe says it is a really difficult decision to make when students still don't know what the outcome of missing exams will be.
"We've been guided by our teachers that the choice is ours whether we attend the exams or not, I've taken the decision not to, as have many others.
"I feel like at the moment we are having to choose between our career and the health of our family, nobody should have to choose that.
"No one knows the consequences, we're now worried about university applications and getting into university. Nobody knows how that will stand and we haven't been told what's going to happen."
Chloe Dove, BTEC student from Cornwall
It comes as the education secretary will reveal later what support is on offer for young people after schools and colleges closed.
They are expected to remain shut until at least mid-February.
The Cornwall Association of Secondary Headteachers is calling for the government to work with teachers, and develop a new way of assessing students.
"The exam situation in England is that we are very exam reliant, many heads and many teachers would feel this is not the best way to assess children anyway, we certainly need exams but we need other types of assessment around it.
"We feel the government needs to be working closely with Ofqual, the regulatory authority, and with teachers on the ground, to develop a system whereby we've got a good mix and a reliable method of assessing the students, it's only January now, we need to be getting on with that straight away."
David Barton, Cornwall Association of Secondary Headteachers
He says that with classrooms closed to the majority of pupils, schools will be developing new ways of carrying out lessons.
"It think the key thing for headteachers that they've learnt is that parents have got to be able to manage the family. That's where one of the downsides of live lessons is concerned, if you've got a Year 9 child for example, who might have a Year 5 or 6 sibling, they might not be able to both be online at the same time.
"Therefore there are benefits in not actually having live lessons, but recording lessons. There is a whole variety of things that teachers will be doing differently compared with actually teaching in the classroom. But certainly recognising that all families are in different circumstances."
David Barton, Cornwall Association of Secondary Headteachers