annodomini
*Callistemon*, that is quite similar to what the French have done. They have taken an average of each student's grades over the previous two terms and used those as their results. They have also opened up 10,000 more university places.
The reason the UK couldn't do that is because coursework was scrapped. There is no standardisation of any internal work. In France and Germany, there are interim assessments, which are overseen in France by the government and in Germany by each individual "Land".
Once the decision to abandon exams was taken, there never was going to be an easy solution. Any solution would have been the "least worst".
It would have caused less heartache (and have been easier for universities to manage) if Centre Assessed Grades had been accepted from the start. Yes, there would have been some slight grade inflation. Yes, it would have involved admitting more students on to higher education courses - but that would, at least, have kept the unemployment figures for 18 year olds down.
Ofqual and the government deliberately chose a solution which was flawed. They didn't care less about the sixth formers in inner cities. They didn't reckon on the backlash from grammar schools and the highly academic sixth forms, some of which are in the private sector. They thought they could ride the storm and they probably would have done if it had "only" been the pupils from deprived areas who had suffered. They could easily have got the compliant media to blame teachers for overinflating the estimated grades of deprived pupils, but it didn't work out like that.