Pressure on Government to upgrade A-level results
THE Welsh Government is under increasing pressure to upgrade the A-level results of students in Wales who had the grades their teachers recommended lowered by examiners.
Welsh Labour backbenchers have criticised the system used after more than four in 10 grades handed out on Thursday were lower than teachers had recommended – some by as much as four grades and more than 100 by three grades.
David Rees, Labour MS for Aberavon, wrote on Twitter: “There will be many disappointed with the results awarded through the standardisation process.
“I believe that no student should be disadvantaged through no fault of their own and thus I will be writing to the Minister for Education to hold a review of this process and in particular to ensure that the appeals process takes into consideration teacher assessment and estimated grades, particularly for those students who have not had an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities via any external examination.”
Labour MS for Swansea East Mike Hedges echoed this concern, saying: “I have been told school-calculated grades were reduced without sampling of any of the pupils’ work taking place... please tell me that is not true.”
Speaking to us, he added: “For A-level students you have their AS grade.
“You also have their ‘Durham’ predicted grade from their GCSE results.
“If you intend to downgrade results then surely seeing the candidates’ work would produce a betterinformed judgement.
“With BTEC – no complaints – sampling of student work occurs. With A-level – lots of complaints – no sampling. Spot the difference.”
Opposition parties have criticised the Welsh Government, with Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price saying “pupils who were awarded lesser grades than the teacher assessments in A-level and AS exams should be upgraded to the teacher assessment grades”.
Mr Price said that after UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had criticised the UK Government for English results being 40% lower than predicted, it would amount to political game-playing if they didn’t look again at the fairness of the Welsh system where “42% of results were downgraded”.
The First Minister told ITV that the positions on A-level grades in England and Wales were “very different”.
He said: “England, where they don’t have AS-levels; England, where you have to pay for an appeal; England, where people will be kept waiting for longer for results than they have here in Wales.
“The big picture is we have more students achieving, more students achieving at the top end of the scale, and a record number of people from Wales accepted into university.”
In a statement Liberal Democrat Education Minister Kirsty Williams said that students would be able to appeal against their grades free of charge.
She said: “All appeals will be free for Welsh students to ensure there is no financial barrier to ensure learners feel their exam grades are fair.”