Boosting exam grades ‘would harm Generation Covid for life’
Williamson rules out following Scotland with about-turn on A-level results
INFLATING the grades of the Covid generation risks devaluing their exam results and harming their future career prospects, the Education Secretary warns today.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph,
Gavin Williamson says he will refuse to follow Scotland into an about-turn and allow students to be awarded grades predicted by their teachers.
Thousands of A-level students in England will today be given marks calculated by a statistical model which takes into account a number of factors, including their performances in earlier tests and the results of previous exams at their schools.
However, ministers yesterday admitted that this meant 40 per cent of students would be awarded a lower grade than those predicted by teachers.
Critics have urged the Government to follow the example of Scotland, which this week said that students would receive the grades predicted by their teachers.
In England, this would see results of up to 12 per cent higher than last year – the highest year-on-year grade inflation since records began in 1951.
Mr Williamson warns that if teachers’ grades were used: “We would have seen them shoot up, which would devalue the results for the class of 2020, and would clearly not be fair on the classes of 2019 and 2021.
“But worse than that, it would mean that students this year would lose out twice over, both in their education and their future prospects.” The remarks come as 250,000 students prepare to receive their A-level grades today, which will largely be predicted by a statistical model as well as a rank order drawn up by teachers.
Yesterday, Nick Gibb, the schools minister, revealed that 40 per cent of grades had been lowered from teachers’ recommendations, far more than the 24 per cent that were downgraded in Scotland.
Sources warned that the Government should be braced for the same levels of outrage over grades today that results day in Scotland precipitated last week.
On Tuesday evening, Mr Williamson made an 11th-hour change to the appeal system which meant that pupils can now appeal against their grades on the basis of mock exam results.
It was the latest in a series of late changes to the appeals system ahead of results day and followed an about-turn by the Scottish government which threw Whitehall into a panic about how to head off a similar crisis.
John Swinney, the Scottish education minister, announced on Tuesday that the 124,564 grades that had been downgraded by their algorithm would be withdrawn and replaced with teachers’ recommendations.
The Welsh education minister Kirsty Williams pledged to introduce a “safety net” whereby students would not get a lower A-level grade than their AS mark.
Unlike in England, where As-levels
were scrapped under a series of reforms to “toughen up” A-levels, they remain in place in Wales.
This means that they can be relied on as an indicator of a pupil’s performance in exam conditions.
Ministers have come under pressure to abandon their results algorithm over fears that disadvantaged pupils will fare worse.
In Scotland, where teachers’ predicted grades will now be used, in the Advanced Higher – equivalent to Alevels – the pass rate shot up by 13.7 percentage points in a year, while the Higher – equivalent to As-levels – pass rate increased by 14.4 percentage points.
A source familiar with the statistical modelling used in the grading process said: “There could easily be the same sort of outrage in England that there was in Scotland about grades being scaled back.
“Given the scale of downgraded marks will be so much bigger here, then there are bound to be students saying, ‘Give us all higher grades, too’.
“The Government ought to buy an extra strong tin hat for Gavin Williamson and see if he can hold out more than a few days.” The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) watchdog said that it was working “urgently” to implement the last-minute changes to the appeals process which were announced by the Education Secretary yesterday.
Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the social mobility charity The Sutton Trust, said that this year’s grading was “grossly imperfect”. He urged universities to admit students from difficult backgrounds even if they had narrowly missed their grades. Universities have reportedly reassured ministers that, to reflect the situation, they will “soften” the grades students normally require.
They were also taken aback by the Government’s announcement yesterday, saying that the new grounds for appeal represented “a number of challenges” for admissions tutors.
Prof Julia Buckingham, president of Universities UK, said that vice-chancellors were “seeking urgent clarification from the Department for Education on a range of issues, including the likely scale and timing of appeals”.