Williamson: Exam results will be fair
THE Education Secretary has insisted A-level and GCSE grades decided by teachers will be fair amid concerns that the plan will result in grade inflation.
Gavin Williamson confirmed to MPs that “no algorithm” will be used to decide grades this summer, with the judgment of teachers relied on instead and any changes made by “human intervention”.
Mr Williamson defended allowing teachers to decide students’ grades after exams were cancelled for a second successive year, as he insisted exam boards will carry out checks to “root out malpractice”.
Addressing the Commons about plans for grading, he said: “Ultimately, this summer’s assessments will ensure fair routes to the next stages of education or the start of their career. That is our overall aim.”
It comes as the Government prepares to publish details of who will be next on the priority list for a vaccine once all the over50s and most vulnerable have been vaccinated.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation is understood to have recommended that prioritisation should continue down the age ranges, with people in
their 40s invited next for a jab. The move could come as a blow to those who have been campaigning for teachers, police officers and other frontline key workers to be next on the list.
Earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the plans for teachers to grade pupils were a “good compromise”.
He said the process of issuing grades to students will be “fair” and “durable”.
Thousands of A-level students had their results downgraded from school estimates by a controversial algorithm before Ofqual announced a U-turn which allowed them to use teachers’ predictions.
Conservative MP Robert Halfon, who chairs the Commons Education Committee,
asked how ministers will ensure there will not be a “wild west of grading” this summer.
The senior Tory said: “The decision to adopt centre-assessed for the second year in a row does highlight the severity of the damage school closures have done, and whilst I accept that it’s the least worst option that the Government has come up with, my concern is not so much about having one’s cake and eating it, but baking a rock cake of grade inflation into the system.”
He called on ministers to set out a plan for ensuring grades are “meaningful” to employers so they do not “damage children’s life chances”.
Mr Williamson said grade inflation was an “important issue” but it was being addressed through internal and external checks.
Schools will be given wide flexibility in deciding how teachers assess and grade pupils, based on the parts of the curriculum they have been taught. Results will be published earlier than usual, with A-level grades issued on August 10 and GCSE students receiving their results two days later.
RELATIONS between the UK and Russia remain in a “deep-freeze” three years after a chemical weapons attack in Salisbury killed one and left a city shaken.
Sir David Lidington, who was former Conservative prime minister Theresa May’s de facto deputy at the time, said the Government needs to strengthen its commitment to the security services in the wake of the attack.
Sir David, the chairman of the foreign policy think tank Rusi, said: “Three years on, the UK’s relationship with Russia remains in deep-freeze. It’s hard to see any real thaw happening while the Russian authorities reject any responsibility for the Salisbury attack and refuse to allow suspects to be questioned.”
On March 4, 2018, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were targeted with the nerve agent Novichok and left seriously ill.
Wiltshire Police Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey was also treated after coming into contact with the substance when he tried to help the pair.
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