Fiasco of exam grades will scar this generation

As students today receive their GCSE results we wish pupils at our schools the very best for the future, whatever those envelopes may contain.

We can only hope today proves significantly less traumatic than last week’s fiasco over A-level grading. By now we are well used to witnessing this Government execute U-turns, but the right result was arrived at eventually.

Many teachers have experienced frustration at feeling they are not trusted by those in Parliament to know their students and how they will perform - and these concerns were raised during discussion of grade ‘standardisation.’

Of course teachers were also in the best place to assess how a pupil might improve between their mocks and the real deal. The worst part of it all is the impact on the Class of 2020 caught up in this almighty mess. The march of technology means algorithms increasingly dominate our lives, helpfully (or otherwise) they suggest what we might buy next on Amazon or watch on Netflix. And most have made peace with that.

What people won’t take lying down, however, is when the computer code dreamt up by some whizz in Whitehall manifestly blights the life prospects of our young people. How many pupils will remain scarred by the experience of last Thursday? How many may now miss out on their dream university place, seeing their path in life irretrievably altered as a result?

Falling back on predicted grades may have dampened the controversy. But many of these bright, young adults will remember this and wonder if their lives could have taken a different turn, at age 18, if many things were different.