STUDENTS PROTEST OVER GRADES
A- LEVEL students and parents gathered to protest over grade results at Cardiff Bay yesterday afternoon.
Many young people and parents were left angry following A-level results day on Thursday and believe many pupils were marked down.
As exams were cancelled due to coronavirus teachers across Wales were asked to give recommended grades for their pupils.
However, more than four in 10 grades were lowered by examiners, with some being lowered by a massive four grades, meaning some pupils were denied a place at their choice of university.
Education Minister Kirsty Williams announced on Wednesday evening that no learner will receive an A-level grade less than the AS grades already awarded to them. Speaking on Thursday, she said a review of GCSE grades may also take place.
If a student receives a final grade on Thursday that is below that of their previous AS grade, then a revised grade will be issued automatically by exam board the WJEC.
Pupils are able to appeal their grades through Qualifications Wales, who used a “standardisation” process to adjust the centre assessed grade given by teachers, which used an algorithm. The algorithm used measures including the past performance of schools and school years.
Some headteachers believe this system is controversial because it puts higher achieving students at historically lower-achieving schools at a disadvantage.
The standardisation process has sparked a backlash, with many students, parents and teachers angered by the results.
An organiser of today’s protests was inspired to rally students together to protest after seeing how successful similar events were in Scotland which encouraged the Scottish Government to do a U-turn on results there.
Cai Parry, 17, said: “I saw the Scottish results fiasco and I saw how protests up there had worked, with the Scottish Government doing a U-turn.”
It was announced earlier last week that grades in Scotland would be reverted to teacher-predicted grades after a similar outcry following a controversial moderation process.
Cai added: “There were reports that a similar situation was going to happen in England and Wales, so I started organising the protest in case it happened, and eventually it did.”
In response to Thursday’s results, a petition to the Welsh Government calling for the reinstatement of teacher-assessed grades was started and has since gained over 18,000 signatures.
Natalie Johns, 18, from Y Pant school was left devastated after having her grades significantly lowered and subsequently losing her place at Cambridge University to study Psychological and Behavioural Science.
Her school had predicted her three A* grades, above her offer of two A* grades and one A needed for Cambridge University.
However, when she picked up her results on Thursday morning, she was shocked to find that her grades had been lowered significantly to one A* and two A grades, resulting in her missing her offer.
“I opened my results and just started crying,” said Natalie.
“On Friday I had an email from Gonville and Caius College [the college Ms Johns had received an offer from] saying I hadn’t got in, but that they would let other colleges look at me,” she said.
Luckily, on Friday evening, Ms Johns received a further email informing her that her place at her preferred college had been confirmed after her school and local MP, Alex DaviesJones, had been in contact to explain her situation.
She still felt it was important to come to yesterday’s protest, however, to urge the Welsh Government to reconsider their approach and reinstate teacher-predicted grades for students across Wales.
“It just doesn’t make any sense,” she said.
Jared Williams, also from Y Pant, said he came as his AS level results were significantly lower than expected.
“They were two grades below what I was predicted. They should have been BBC, and I got DDC.”
Jenani Benedict, 17, is an AS Level Student scared about the repercussions of these results on her future.
Ms Benedict plans to apply to medical school, but due to her AS grades being lower than predicted, is worried she will not be able to.
“I was downgraded in three out of four of my subjects, and I was really angry about that. I worked hard, especially because I live in a poor area where there’s a lack of progression to higher education,” said Ms Benedict, from Lansbury Park in Caerphilly.
Izzah Burki and Kate Edwards (both 18 and studying at St David’s College, Cardiff) got into their universities of choice, but say they have turned up to campaign against the injustice of this year’s results. “It’s a bigger issue based on class... it’s mad how much it has affected everybody,” said Ms Burki, discussing the way in which this year’s A-Levels have been graded.
Elizabeth Goodham’s daughter Abigail is a student at Rougemont School in Newport.
Like many others, Abigail was set to take her place at Cardiff University, until she was awarded her A-Levels on Thursday and they were well below the grades her teachers had predicted.
Cardiff University have guaranteed to keep her place until August 31 if Abigail’s appeal is successful, but the process to appeal, explained Mrs Goodham, can take anything up to 48 days. Explaining Abigail’s teachers’ response, she said: “When I spoke to staff at the school, it sounded like somebody had died. They were just totally devastated.”
Plaid Cymru’s leader Adam Price has issued a warning to the Welsh Government that they face a legal challenge over the exam results.
Speaking at the rally outside the Senedd building, Mr Price revealed the party is in talks regarding a Judicial Review: “We are currently exploring the possibility of issuing legal proceedings against Qualifications Wales and the Welsh Government in parallel with the legal action being brought by the Good Law Project in England.
“If you are prepared to go public and use your experience as a test case then please email me with your details. We can win and must win this fight.”
He condemned the First Minister for failing to apologise: “The Welsh Government has yet to utter that apology so let me make it for them – with a simple apology to the young people of Wales for the system, the political system and the education system, that let you down.
“Putting things right when you get things wrong starts with honesty.
“If we were grading the Welsh Government for the way in which A and AS Level awards have been handled then I think by any assessment they have failed and they have failed utterly. And the consequences of that fail
ure has been felt most keenly of all of course by those young people whose choice of university and whose very futures have been stolen from them through no fault of their own.”
He added that the Welsh Government’s performance over A-Level results meant it had lost the confidence of students, parents and teachers and hinted at a vote of no confidence in the Labour Government: “If the Welsh Government continues to say it has no confidence in teachers, then teachers will have no confidence in it. And neither will we. If a motion of no confidence was good enough for the Labour Party in Scotland, then maybe it’s right for us in Wales too.”
Mr Price told the crowd: “The Welsh Government claims that closing the educational attainment gap is an essential goal of policy.
“And yet you were more likely to be downgraded on Thursday if you were on free school meals than if you were not. Was it ever right to base a current assessment on past performance which leaves no room for a student making rapid progress?
“If the system was robust why did the Education Minister feel forced, the night before, to issue a so-called AS Level safety net which it itself introduces another tier of unfairness because it does not recognise the progress that students have made in Year 13.
“Why the series of concessions on the appeals procedure if the Welsh Government were not expecting thousands of appeals because the system is simply indefensible?
“The irrational, unconscionable, unfathomable outcomes are too numerous, too similar, too serious to be outliers. When whole schools, whole departments are marked down, without any rationale, this clearly goes beyond individual anomalies.
“We will need a comprehensive inquiry into why this has happened. And it’s good to know that the Senedd Education Committee will begin that work on Tuesday.”
Delyth Jewell, MS for South Wales East, addressing the crowd, said: “For those of you affected by this, remember that you are so much more than what has happened to you.”
She urged the Welsh Government to “do the right thing”.
The four UK Children’s Commissioners have issued a joint call to UK universities asking them to honour the offers of a place they have already made to prospective domestic students. In a letter to Universities UK, the collective body of Vice-chancellors and Principals in UK Universities, Professor Sally Holland, Children’s Commissioner for Wales, Bruce Adamson, Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, Anne Longfield OBE, Children’s Commissioner for England, and Koulla Yiasouma, Northern Ireland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, called for “an exceptional response to exceptional times”.
The four independent Commissioners, whose role it is to protect and promote children and young people’s human rights, warned that young people’s “rights to an education and to fair and equal treatment have been severely compromised this year”.
They went on to say that: “University offers will have been made on the basis of individual statements, previous achievements, references, predicted grades and in some cases entrance exams and interviews.
“Many students have had little chance to progress their education since those offers were made. It is unfair to now reject individuals whose results have been arrived at by a system that is likely to have produced individual anomalies.
“The impact of the decisions made by universities now will have life-long consequences for this generation of young people. We strongly urge universities to respond with generosity of spirit and to warmly welcome all students who hold offers for their institution.”
In response to the protest at the Senedd today, a Welsh Government spokesperson said: “Thanks to the Wales-only decision to guarantee that the final grade would be no lower than an AS grade, over 4,000 learners will benefit.
This is around 15% of all A-Level students and makes a significant difference to the overall impact of variations between final grades and Centre Assessed Grades.
Even before the AS floor, 94% of the grades are the same as or within one grade of the Centre Assessed Grades.
“Earlier this week, the Minister directed Qualifications Wales to broaden the grounds for appeal for A-levels, AS, Skills Challenge Certificate and GCSEs and today, they have now confirmed what this means for students.
“Qualification Wales and the WJEC will share the full details, but appeals can now be made where there is evidence of internal assessments that has been judged by the school or college to be at a higher grade than the grade they have been awarded.
“Learners who are not happy with their grades can appeal through their school or college in the same way that they have always been able to do, and the Education Minister announced this process would be free for Welsh students earlier this week.”