Williamson is savaged over exam grades ‘Wild West’

Ministers faced a wave of criticism over their plans for GCse and A-level grades last night, as critics likened them to a ‘Wild West’ system which would lead to an ‘onslaught of appeals’.

Others said top universities could become badly over- subscribed by large numbers of students awarded inflated grades by generous teachers.

But simon Lebus, the head of exams regulator Ofqual, said he did not expect to see a ‘huge amount of grade inflation’ – despite the free rein being given to teaching staff.

education secretary Gavin Williamson ignited a furious row by announcing that teachers would be given almost total control over this summer’s exam grades after last year’s controversy over the Ofqual algorithm. teachers will be able to determine not just the grades their pupils receive, but also how they are determined – whether they simply use coursework, or classroom performance or ‘ mini exams’ based on questions from previous papers.

Ministers believe this is the only fair way to assess pupils forced to learn at home following the closure of all schools at the start of the year.

But critics fear there will be huge inconsistencies in how pupils are assessed – and rampant grade inflation will make it impossible for universities or employers.

Former schools minister David Laws, now executive chairman of the education Policy institute, warned there was a risk the grade inflation could be ‘excessive’. And robert Halfon, Conservative chairman of the education committee, told the Commons that the system could ‘ bake a rock cake of grade inflation into the system’.

He demanded that the Government act to avoid a ‘Wild West of grading’, as well as to guarantee the grades are ‘ meaningful to employers so as not to damage children’s life chances’.

sir Jon Coles, a former Department for education official who quit his role with Ofqual in apparent protest at the move, said the system failed to ‘protect teachers’.

‘With thousands of people making decisions separately, consistency of judgment will not happen by magic,’ he said. ‘But i suspect we’re just going to need to get on with making the best of it. the royal statistical society’s sharon Witherspoon added: ‘While a system of teacher-awarded grades will help avoid some of last year’s issues around the awarding of qualifications, we need to see more detail. We understand that schools will be provided with results from previous years as a guide, but there is no information on how teachers should – or even could – use these data.’

And after a positive initial response from some teaching unions, Dr Patrick roach, general secretary of nAsUWt, said his members found the plans ‘profoundly concerning’. He said there was ‘no detail’ on how grading would be consistent between schools and ‘no meaningful information’ on the evidence teachers should use in assessing students.

the Government’s emphasis on ‘trusting teachers’ adds an unprecedented level of freedom – or potention tial chaos – into this year’s system.

in contrast to last year’s intrusive computer-driven approach, teachers’ grading decisions will be altered by exam boards only in rare cases where malpractice or sloppy standards are exposed. the opportunity for another year of wild grade inflais there if teachers decide to boost grades, since the Government has said it will not try to keep marks in line with previous years.

But if teachers follow exam board guidance for grading attentively, students may well find they have on average done worse than those in the year above. Mr Lebus, Ofqual’s interim chief regulator, said schools which try to game the system will be picked up by ‘quality assurance’ processes within exam boards.

He told radio 4 he was ‘perfectly happy with the set of arrangements we have ended up with’, despite appearing to advocate compulsory ‘mini-exams’ last month.

Boris Johnson said the plans were a ‘good compromise’.  students taking certain practical courses will still have to take exams this year, despite fears it will leave them worse off than those getting estimated grades.

Ofqual said it could be dangerous if those, for example, learning to fix a boiler, did not have to demonstrate skills. But one in four training providers said exams such as BTECS and NVQS should be scrapped.

‘Damage children’s life chances’