Let’s giv e full cred it to Mr Weir... eventually he did the right thing

AFTER a long day of entering examination results appeals on behalf of many of the students of Glastry College, I was absolutely delighted when at 4.32pm a message popped up on my phone: ‘A-level U turn!’

I immediately checked the BBC website to check the veracity of the report. My predominant thought was that someone had done the right thing — at last.

I think it is only proper that recognition is given to the Minister for Education, Mr Peter Weir, for doing the right thing.

I appreciate that he was under considerable pressure to change his position on the grading system employed by CCEA and, in such circumstances, change requires great courage.

The decision itself is the right thing on so many levels. Most importantly, it ensures that young people will be issued with grades that reflect their own efforts and abilities rather than those of their predecessors: this is the only fair and just outcome.

This will now, hopefully, enable many students to pursue their chosen educational and career pathways. I sincerely hope that no student has lost out on their chosen course in the interim — that would be utterly shameful.

Secondly, it rightly recognises the dedication and professionalism of teachers.

Teachers are personally and emotionally invested in the success of their students.

Teachers spent hours and hours in deliberation over what they thought would most accurately reflect the level of ability and, more importantly, the level of effort made by each student.

Many of my teachers told me that they couldn’t sleep at night, wondering whether they had awarded the fairest grades to their students, despite having access to a wide range of very reliable data as well as detailed knowledge of each student as an individual — something no computer generated algorithm can ever possess.

Thirdly, given the decision announced earlier in the day to award GCSE grades based on the Centre Assessed Grades, the only right thing and the obviously logical thing to do was to take exactly the same approach in awarding AS and A-level grades.

This ensures that every young person who would have been taking public examinations this summer has had grades awarded by those who know them.

Finally, it was the right thing because these young people have been subjected to a sudden termination of their school careers without all the usual rites of passage associated with that stage of life; they were subjected to a lockdown which resulted in isolation and enforced separation from their friends.

Unlike any group before them, they were subjected to months of uncertainty about how they would be graded.

Undoubtedly, this will have adversely impacted upon their mental health and wellbeing. To have insisted on these students having to go through further stress waiting for the results of appeals would have been intolerable.

Full marks to the minister — eventually, he did the right thing!