Williamson: Nothing more we could do over A-levels
EDUCATION Secretary Gavin Williamson insisted today’s A-level results are the fairest possible in the circumstances.
Hundreds of thousands of pupils in England will be awarded grades despite exams being scrapped at the height of the coronavirus crisis.
Mr Williamson raced to put in place a “triple-lock” to stop the system descending into chaos after an outcry in Scotland last week when poorer students were downgraded.
Teenagers will be able to use their mock results to appeal if they are unhappy with the grades they are given – or else sit autumn exams.
Devalue
But results are still being moderated to stop a surge in the number of top grades being handed out.
Without standardisation, the Government fears there would be dramatic grade inflation that would devalue pupils’ results and be unfair on past and future students.
Mr Williamson said the system in place is “one of the fairest that we can do” in the face of the pandemic.
He added: “Congratulations to students receiving their results today – they should feel proud of everything they have achieved in the most extraordinary circumstances.
“Any students who feel they have grounds for appeal now have the safety net of being able to use their mock results as evidence, as well as the chance of sitting autumn exams, thanks to our triple lock process to ensure confidence and fairness.”
Mr Williamson also apologised to “every single child across the country” for the disruption to their schooling during the Covid-19 crisis.
Teachers were told to submit the
grades they thought each student would have received after exams were cancelled this summer.
Assessors moderated the grades to make sure the results were not significantly higher than in past years.
Scotland’s SNP government was forced into a dramatic U-turn after pupils were hit by a postcode lottery on results day.
More than 124,000 results were downgraded because the moderating system linked results with the past performance of their schools among other measures. It meant pupils in deprived areas had their exam pass rate lowered by more than twice that of students from wealthy districts.
But the decision to revert back to the original teacher-based results means the country now has 14 per cent grade inflation that could leave universities and employers questioning the value of the results.
Relying entirely on teachers’ predictions in England would have meant about 38 per cent of exam papers would have been graded A* or A grades this year compared to the previous record of 27 per cent.
England’s system for moderating results was developed in consultation with headteachers and unions.
By adding in the “safety net” measures of promising students results no lower than their mock exams or the option of autumn exams, the Government is hoping to avoid the crisis faced by Holyrood.
Nick Gibb, the schools minister for England, acknowledged that the Government was “concerned” about what had happened in Scotland but insisted the system in England remains “robust”.
He said that only a “small number” of students would be affected by the change, adding: “There is no confusion. We had to have a system in place to award qualifications given that we had cancelled the exams.”
The move was rapped as “panicked and chaotic” by union leaders representing school heads, who warned of inconsistencies in grades.
But English exams watchdog Ofqual said the system put in place “is the fairest way of giving students an opportunity to move on in the unprecedented circumstances this year, with grades which carry value”.
Fiasco
It said every grade students receive has been based on teachers’ judgments “either wholly, or in combination with the statistics”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the way pupils were assessed risks “robbing them of their future”.
He added: “This is a complete fiasco. It was obvious that this was going to be difficult but it’s been weeks or months in the coming.”
But Parveen Yaqoob, deputy vicechancellor at the University of Reading, said: “Students can be reassured that universities already have a good idea about which students will have their places confirmed, and this change won’t have a big impact.”