Hayfever, not a fever. With hayfever, there is some element of control (taking medication, staying out of nature etc.), and it’s hard to determine the effect on exam performance (some people just have a runny nose for a few weeks, hardly life-altering, but for others it’s way more serious. As a kid, I had to take steroid injections during exam years, mine was that bad.) Crucially, in severe cases, it could mean the difference between an A and a B and whether a pupil is accepted into certain universities…

A significant amount of people then, are affected by the British Spring and moving exams back a month could remedy that, arguably, while also resolving religious clashes. In that way, I do see more of a link there with Ramadan than you did. (I won’t speak for the original author, but he seemed to me to be referencing the seasonal nature of school exams.)

Yes, fasting is a religious/cultural “choice” in the same way that celebrating Christmas is, but if you want to get the best out of pupils, there’s no harm in acknowledging that a fair amount of them will be fasting and may not be at peak performance (although, just so my comment isn’t misinterpreted, I am NOT saying all schools should bend to the Eid calendar. It’s clear a lot of people on here don’t read properly).

If school — and the examination system— is about building up a strong future workforce then it’s way behind in terms of the modern life. Yes, as an adult, I have high pressure moments — and I have a few friends in high pressure jobs — but I know don’t know many people at all whose life depends on how they handle themselves in a series of 3-hour assessments at the end of 2 years. Usually, they have a project that runs over a few days/weeks, they take work home, on their phones etc. and they collaborate.

Lately, in the advent of heightened plagarism and pupils cutting and pasting projects from Wikipedia (or simply paying people to do their work) the government has cut back coursework/ continuous assessment to almost zero in schools, and that’s unfair to people who don’t work that way. The kind of person who is really productive under exam circumstances where they have to write with a pen and no access to technology (or even, in some cases, reference books) is great, yes, but those kind of skills aren’t as useful as they used to be.