PUPILS are set to receive qualifications this summer based on what their teachers believe they would have achieved.

GCSE, AS level and A level exams have all been cancelled, as have Skills Challenge Certificates, because of the coronavirus, and Qualifications Wales has now issued its advice on how pupils will be graded.

Teachers will be asked to submit the grade they think each pupil would have achieved had the exams gone ahead, and will then rank the pupils within each grade.

These will then be standardised by exam moderation body the Welsh Joint Education Committee.

Qualifications Wales chief executive Philip Blaker said: “Clearly in these extraordinary times it’s important that we all work together to find the fairest possible way to provide learners with the grades they deserve for all their hard work.

“We are working with a wide range of partners in education to develop our approach. We are writing to all centres today with this information, which applies to schools, colleges and other exam centres using approved Wales-only GCSE, AS, A Levels and Skills Challenge Certificates offered by WJEC and regulated by us.

“We want centres to consider each learner’s performance over the course of study and make a realistic judgement of the grade and rank of each learner."

The guidance will require subject teachers to use their judgement in assessing the final grade each pupil deserves, in their GCSEs, AS levels, A levels and Skills Challenge Certificates.

The regulator has worked with various representatives of the education sector in Wales after Education Minister Kirsty Williams decided to close schools and cancel the exams because of the pandemic.

For every GCSE, AS, A level and Skills Challenge Certificate qualification, each centre will be required to submit an assessment grade for each student, based on the judgement of teachers and heads of department, and the rank order of learners within each grade, for each qualification.

Once centre assessment grades and the rank order have been submitted, WJEC will carry out a process, agreed with Qualifications Wales, to standardise grades between centres.

This guidance provides clarity on what centres will need to do to support the award of GCSEs, AS and A levels and the Skills Challenge Certificate. These are only some of the qualifications that learners will be relying on this summer and Qualifications Wales is talking to other regulators across the UK to provide clarity for all qualifications.

The deadline for submission of data by centres to WJEC will be announced soon, but it won't be before May 29. More information is expected to follow from WJEC after Easter.