Education chiefs must learn lessons
If there was an examination on the performance of senior education figures’ handling of the school grades fiasco throughout the United Kingdom, their marks would be embarrassingly low. After days of uncertainty, disappointment, convoluted explanations and much stress for pupils, their families and their teachers, there is now much-delayed clarity.
The authorities will now give the teachers’ assessments pride of place, but what a U-turnithasbeenforthe education authorities, and not least in our own province.
The Stormont Education Minister Peter Weir has come out of this badly.
He backed the initial gradings here which have led to such controversy and heartache, and in announcing his U-turnyesterdayhegavethe impression that he was being swayed by developments in other parts of the UK, rather than by his own convictions.
It was obvious to most people that when he changed the rules for GCSES and decided to depend on teachers’ assessments, it was only a matter of time before he extended that ruling to AS and A-level grades.
The damage is particularly serious among young people whoworkedhardattheirstudies and had every right to expect fair treatment. However they found the opposite to be the case, and deep disappointment for young people at that vulnerable age may well colour their views about the competence of those in authority for the rest of their lives.
Another disappointing dimension in the whole debaclewastheapparentlackof feeling for the pupils who were clearly distressed about the initial outcome.
Some senior figures talked about “anomalies”, when in reality they were talking about young human beings who were depending on getting fair treatment in determining the grades that would have a huge impact on their career.
This regrettable episode is not yet over, and the universities may need help in dealing with a higher volume of applications than expected. The least the government can do is to be flexible and sympathetic if the universities’ have further needs.
However, the whole challenge of getting fair grades was immensely challenging and education is a difficult portfolio.
Nevertheless the way this was handled does not provide confidence about the controversy of wearing face masks in schools. The educational authorities still have a lot to learn.