HE’S GAVIN A LAUGH
EX-FIREPLACE salesman Gavin Williamson was feeling the heat last night as MPs and schoolchildren called on the Education Secretary to resign.
And as pressure grows on the Tory behind the results downgrading fiasco, his previous blunders and failures today return to haunt him.
With the A-level debacle set to be repeated when GCSE results come out this week, Labour r MP Rupa
Huq said: “He’s out of his depth and should quit. At least ast he has an alternative career ahead as a Frank Spencer impersonator.” sonator.”
Lib Dem Education on chief
Layla Moran added: d: “He should make way y for someone competent. t. Few will be confident the GCSE awards will be any less s of a shambles. No child’s future should be determined by a postcode lottery.”
And Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green said the Tory’s grading solution looked like it had been “dreamed up on the back of a cigarette packet”.
An estimated 280,000 grades were changed by “standardisation” which saw examiners put previous performance by schools ahead of teacher predictions in a computer algorithm.
The same approach will apply to GCSEs taken by around 700,000 schoolchildren in England. Two million grades recommended by teachers are to be downgraded, researchers have warned – meaning plans for A-levels, university, and other career courses are at risk.
Meanwhile a senior Tory offered little hope of A-level grade appeals being fair. Robert Halfon, Commons Education Committee chair, said: “The narrow appeals process is geared towards the well-heeled and sharp-elbowed.”
Even Mr Williamson’s “triple lock” allowing pupils to accept their grade, use mock results or sit new exams has been unpicked. Regulator Ofqual yesterday warned mocks may no longer guarantee a higher grade.
RUINED
Yesterday youngsters protested outside Downing Street, with a banner claiming Mr Williamson was “promoted beyond competence”.
Curtis Parfitt-Hall, 18, of Ealing, West London, is crowdfunding to raise £15,000 for the legal costs of a judicial
review into Mr Williamson’s decision. He has raised £8,500 so far. He said: “It’s discriminatory to mark pupils down based on what school they go to.”
And on BBC’s Any Questions, A-level student Nina Bunting- Mitcham, of Stamford, Lincs, told Mr Williamson’s sidekick, schools minister Nick Gibb: “You’ve ruined my life.”
Today Mr Williamson – who sold fireplaces in North Yorkshire in the noughties before his rise to infamy – will try to deflect attention from the crisis by launching a safe return to schools campaign. But given his past blunders, no one can be certain it will work, coming from a man who:
■ FAILED as Defence Secretary where he was nicknamed Private Pike for suggesting firing paintballs at Spanish ships entering Gibraltar’s waters.
■ FRIGHTENED MPs as Chief Whip by keeping a pet tarantula on his desk.
■ FOUND himself mocked for telling Vladamir Putin to “go away and shut up” after the Salisbury poisonings.
■ ANNOYED MPs while giving a speech on Islamic State when his iPhone assistant Siri piped up: “I’ve found something about Syria on the web.”
■ FLOUTED Parliamentary rules by using Instagram in the Commons.
■ GOT the boot from the Theresa May’s Cabinet for allegedly leaking National Security Council deliberations over Huawei’s involvement in 5G network.
Labour leader Keir Starmer has called for the Tories to follow Scotland’s U-turn on exam grading and revert to teacher predictions. Meanwhile Tony Blair’s former communications chief Alastair Campbell said: “The Education Secretary had months to work out a solution and failed miserably.
“But it goes beyond that. Helping children make the most of their talents is total yawnsville as far as Boris Johnson is concerned.
“Now private school kids are able to hoover up even more of the best university places. Poorer kids are left to the charitable goodwill of those universities with a bit of a conscience.
“Children, their parents and teachers should not take this lying down.”
Theresa May sacked Gavin Williamson from her Cabinet because she thought he leaked National Security Council secrets. He hotly denies ever doing so. But today he cannot duck his responsibility for a greater crime – jeopardising the futures of hundreds of thousands of young people.
Their exams were cancelled months ago. Mr Williamson had all that time to prepare an alternative way to assess them.
He failed that test abysmally and that is why he should go. The solution he came up with – only days before the results were announced – was no solution at all.
Exam regulator Ofqual is already dismantling his so-called “triple lock” promise for grades, adding to the chaos and confusion.
We accept that the changed conditions of Covid-19 mean there is a sharp learning curve for people in all walks of life, politics included.
We do not expect ministers to get absolutely everything right. We do expect them not to get absolutely everything wrong.
STUBBORN
Nicola Sturgeon had a similar algorithm assessment system in Scotland. The moment results came out, she realised computers cannot decide grades, and scrapped it.
Gavin Williamson is either too stubborn or too stupid or both to do the same.
He intends to stick to his guns and inflict on GCSE students the same misery this week as A-level students are suffering now.
That is mad, bad and dangerous. He is working on the false premise that this is the only way to be fair to the classes of 2019 and 2021. False, because Covid has hardly been fair to the class of 2020. Students cannot be marked on exams they never took, which is why teacher predictions are the best judge.
If Mr Williamson cannot see that then he is unfit to be in charge of our children’s education.
That is why he should now follow the advice he once gave to the Russians.
Go away and shut up.