Robert Halfon has advised exams regulator Ofqual to make a decision by October deadline whether to scrap exams in next year and again award grades based on teachers’ assessments.
“It is 50:50 that exams go ahead next summer,” Halfon said, as quoted by The Sunday Times.
“Serious analysis needs to be done and then they need to make an announcement about exams within the next few weeks,” he added.
In turn, Ofqual chairman Roger Taylor is to face questions from MPs on Wednesday while students return to schools.
“There are no plans to cancel either GCSEs or A-levels in 2021. There are also currently no plans to curtail programmes of study,” an Ofqual spokeswoman said as quoted by the Daily Mail.
Earlier, the coronavirus pandemic led to the cancellation of final exams for schoolchildren: instead of them, a system for assessing educational results without examinations was created.
The UK, which has recorded 331,644 cases of the novel coronavirus and 41,886 coronavirus-related deaths so far, ranks fifth among the world’s most affected countries by number of fatalities, sitting behind US, Brazil, Mexico and India.