Two-thirds of parents worry exams and assessments won’t reflect what their child is capable of due to the pandemic

As students prepare to find out their exam results, new research by Ipsos shows two-thirds (66%) of parents of children aged 4-16 are worried about exams or assessments not reflecting what their child(ren) are/is capable of because of the pandemic. This includes almost 4 in 10 (38%) who say they are very worried while only a quarter (25%) say they are not worried. 

Similarly, 65% of parents say they are worried about their child(ren) catching up on schoolwork missed because of the pandemic, including a third (34%) who are very worried about it. Around 3 in 10 (28%) are not concerned.

Looking back over the pandemic, parents say their children missed seeing their friends at school most (63%) while they also missed learning in the classroom (45%) and subjects not easily done at home, such as PE and Food Technology (36%). Around a third of parents said their child(ren) missed extracurricular clubs at school (34%) or seeing their teachers (32%). Few children missed school lunches/meals at school (17%), according to their parents, while around a quarter missed getting outside at break times and lunches (23%). 

Trinh Tu, Managing Director of Public Affairs at Ipsos in the UK, said:

Now that most aspects of life seem to have returned to normal, at least as much as we could hope for, it’s clear education still has a long way to go to catch up. With most parents of school-age children worried, not only about their children catching-up on missed schoolwork, but specifically on how their exam and assessment results will reflect them, it is clear measures need to be taken to make sure the pandemic does not continue to put students at a disadvantage. 

Technical note

• Ipsos interviewed a representative quota sample of 2,001 adults aged 18-75 in Great Britain, 735 of which were parents of children aged 4-16. Interviews took place on the online Omnibus on 9th-11th August 2022. Data has been weighted to the known offline population proportions. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.