At this year’s Conservative Conference, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) has partnered with Pearson to co-host an open fringe panel discussion: Looking at education recovery through the lens of this year’s exam results:
2022 summer exams were the first to go ahead since 2019 and the results were eagerly anticipated. As planned, grades sat between the 2019 and 2021 distributions, yet these results also shed light on other trends. Gaps between London and the South East and the rest of England have only grown since 2019, despite the government’s levelling up agenda and FE colleges saw a much greater decrease in top grades since 2019 than may have been expected. FE colleges serve a greater proportion of disadvantaged students and the latest EPI research show learning losses for disadvantaged pupils remain greater than their non-disadvantaged peers.
We must ask ourselves: what are the urgent issues coming out of this year’s exam results? What can we learn to improve education recovery moving forwards?
This panel will bring together policy makers, exam boards and education stakeholders to examine what we can learn from this year’s exam results and how we can improve our education recovery strategies in the future. This discussion will consider the role of assessments in pupil outcomes; what can be learnt from these examinations about wider educational trends and finally, whether further targeted support is needed to promote education recovery.
We look forward to welcoming Dr Mary Bousted, National Education Union; Russell Hobby, Teach First; Priya Lakani, CENTURY Tech; Natalie Perera, Education Policy Institute; Derek Richardson, Pearson UK and Dr Mick Walker, CIEA to the panel.
** Note: This event will take place in the conference secure zone. To access the secure zone you will need to obtain a pass directly from the Conservative Party.**
