Surge in top GCSE grades after U-turn
RECORD-BREAKING provisional GCSE results for Wales published yesterday show more than one in four have achieved the top A* and A grades from teacher assessments and more than 99% have passed.
Results show that using the grades recommended by teachers has seen a huge leap in top grades compared to previous years.
Some 25.9% of students received A* or A grades, up from 18.4% in 2019.
Ministers have already apologised to anyone affected by Wales’ controversial grading system, which saw Wales follow Scotland, Northern Ireland and England and scrap the moderated “standardisation”.
Pupils have now being awarded results based on teacher assessments following an outcry from students, teachers, unions and politicians.
In Wales, 42% of A-level results predicted by teachers were lowered by Qualifications Wales, leading to claims that its algorithm, which took into
account the past performances of schools, had unfairly downgraded some pupils.
Following the release of the GCSE results, which mark the end of this year’s results season, Education Minister Kirsty Williams said she is working to rebuild the trust of the public after this summer’s exam results fiasco.
Revised A-level results were also published yesterday after students received grades based on the standardisation model which have now been replaced by the CAG.
They are all upgraded and are the best set of results since 2015.
A total 16.6% of A-levels in Wales are now awarded A* compared with last week’s standardised figure of 10.8% and for A* to C the CAG lifted it from 29.9% of A levels getting that grade to 41.3%
Ms Williams, the lone Lib Dem in the Welsh Government, said Wales needed to come up with a solution for exams next year that the public and profession would have faith in.
She said: “We absolutely intend to run exams next year but need a consensus across the profession and public [in case they cannot] that the system we have works.”
She said that there were “lessons to be learned” after the flawed standardisation process – which downgraded thousands of results in Wales – was ditched after a public outcry.
Some A-level students, who were told their newly upgraded results at the same time as GCSE results were published yesterday, may already have missed out on university places.
Cardiff University is among those to warn they may have to defer some who have now met their offers until next year. Durham University has offered applicants money to defer until next year.
Universities say they don’t have space for all whose grades now meet their conditions.
After visiting Stanwell School in Penarth yesterday, where she met pupils picking up GCSE results, Ms Williams said a review she announced earlier this week would probe what went wrong.
She promised the review on how this year’s results were handled would report back as fast as possible with next year’s exams already on people’s minds.
“I have absolute confidence in the WJEC and Qualifications Wales,” she said. “We have all been working in an unprecedented situation and not in isolation but across the four parts of the UK, but clearly there are lessons to be learned.”
Pupils who already had their GCSE, A-level and AS-level exams cancelled and education disrupted by school closures prompted by the Covid-19 lockdown, then had exam results confusion heaped upon them.
On August 7 it became clear thousands had been downgraded, less than a week before A-level results and two weeks before GCSE results.
Asked how she could regain the trust of the teaching profession and students, Ms Williams said: “We have announced the independent review into this summer and it’s important we learn lessons and prepare for how exams may be disrupted in future by this or another pandemic.”
She stressed the standardisation process had been supported by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) Cymru, among others, but agreed more needed to be learned about what had happened since.
“During the consultation by Qualifications
Wales there was significant support for the process from ASCL Cymru itself agreed it (standardisation) was necessary.
“It is absolutely impossible for every single teacher to be able to work in tandem. Clearly, in the end, the balance of fairness meant we moved to the CAG (Centre Assessed Grades).
“The review will be really important in understanding what things can be done differently.
“We absolutely intend to run exams next year but need a consensus across the profession and public (in case they cannot) that the system we have works.”
Ms Williams said attention must also turn to the safe reopening of schools in a few weeks.
Schools will open from September 3, but the first two weeks are optional.
“It’s really important that we successfully and safely open schools and plans for that are well advanced.
“All our attention and efforts must now need to be going to see children return to school in a safe way after all the disruption caused by Covid-19.
“It is absolutely our intention to limit disruption to education and we will be taking all possible steps to ensure schools remain open.
“If we get to a situation where we were again in the middle of a public health emergency that required us to close schools locally or nationally then all schools have been advised to have plans in place to minimise disruption to learning.”
Meanwhile, yesterday’s results showed girls performed better than boys at the top grades with a massive 30.6% awarded A*-A compared with 21.1% of boys.
There is still a wide attainment gap with children on free school meals recording lower marks overall and lower top marks.
Meanwhile, the National Education Union Cymru has launched a petition with the Welsh Parliament asking for fairness for students taking exams next year.
Its Wales secretary David Evans said: “Young people have had a tough time during the coronavirus outbreak.
“Now we need to urgently make sure the situation of this year’s results doesn’t happen again next year.
“The Welsh Government must now take urgent steps to ensure students due to sit A-level, Welsh Baccalaureate and GCSE exams in 2021 are treated fairly and are not disadvantaged by their backgrounds.
“In Wales, with AS-levels, and more focus on coursework, we have had a solid basis on which to judge students’ work.
“However, allowances must be made for the time students have missed in school or college over the last few months.
“We must build confidence so that the grades awarded, upon which young people’s life chances are determined, properly recognise and reward their achievements.
“We know the minister plans to launch an independent review, which is very welcome, and we look forward to hearing further plans.
“But we can’t emphasise enough how urgent this is.”
Eithne Hughes, director of teaching union ASCL Cymru, said this year’s crisis had
“thrown the spotlight on a system which is far too obsessed with statistics”.
“It fixates on ensuring consistency in the distribution of grades from one year to the next and thus ensures that a certain proportion of young people always leave school feeling as though they have fallen short,” she said.
“This year more students will
receive higher grades because of the decision to revert to centre-assessed grades.
“But this is by accident rather than by design. “In the longer term, we have to think again about our statistics-fixated system. We have to do better.”
Earlier this week Education Minister Ms Williams apologised “directly and unreservedly” for any anguish caused.
Yesterday she said students had made “many sacrifices”, adding: “It has been a year like no other, and today will feel a bit different.
“These results are a reflection and reward for your hard work, prior attainment in exams, and school assessment, so you should be very proud of what you have achieved.”
Though thousands of students got their GCSE results yesterday, it was announced on Wednesday that BTec results issued by Pearsons exam board would be held back for regrading.
Plaid Cymru’s education spokeswoman Sian Gwenllian said the decision would have “serious repercussions for thousands of students across Wales”.
“Young people are being let down again and this is simply not good enough,” she said.
“Now there is more waiting, more uncertainty and once again students following BTec courses are being treated as second class citizens.”