We are currently in difficult situation with the spread of COVID-19. It has already caused widespread disruption and panic, and while we attempt to get a handle on this schools have been closed and public examinations cancelled, rightly so.

However the Government's suggestion that examination boards should base their qualifications on predicted grades is unfair for a significant number of students. The government should make provisions for the examinations to take place at a later date.Teacher's assessments are a reasonable suggestion but they don't take into account a number of factors;

1. Many students will improve greatly during examination preparation time and exceed their predicted grades, I've personally seen students jump two and three grades during this period.

2. Teacher predictions can be inaccurate and many students will have both university, sixth form, college and apprenticeship places riding on the results of public examinations.

3. The process of determining predicted grades will differ greatly depending on the school.

4. Some schools and teachers can and will inflate predicted grades this will only favour some students not all.

5. Some students will favour independent learning over a school setting and predicted grades may not reflect this.

6. These are predictions, not facts every student should have the opportunity to sit  exams that have a direct bearing on their future.

The Government should make provision for the examinations to be held at a later date after the outbreak has been contained and allow students all over the country the opportunity to show what they are capable of. Using the outbreak in China as a template I believe it would be reasonable to assume the outbreak can potentially be contained by the end of the summer this would mean the exams could potentially happen in late summer early Autumn and still allow university terms to start at around the normal time. Any weeks missed could be added on later in the academic year.

Competitive courses at universities make more offers than they have places, because they anticipate that some students will not meet the criteria this will mean some students miss out completely without having the opportunity to compete for their university place, this is not fair.

Predicted grades are not an accurate enough metric to use to determine the future of hundreds of thousands of students many of whom have worked and are working incredibly hard to achieve their best grades.