Party Lines Fair solution needed to grades problem
YOUNG people have been some of the biggest losers during the lockdown.
Many were forced to stay away from schools or colleges for months, and this could affect their education, and their future prospects, for a very long time to come.
There’s a particular issue for those who were due to take exams this year, including A-levels and GCSES.
These have been cancelled, and instead students will be awarded grades based largely on an estimate about what they might have achieved if exams went ahead.
These grades really matter. For example, your A-level grades generally determine whether you’re offered a university place.
But there’s a problem.
MPS are very concerned that, despite the best efforts of the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (known as Ofqual), the system put in place will be unfair.
The House of Commons Education Committee has just completed a lengthy inquiry into the way grades will be awarded.
And MPS on the Committee heard evidence that there is a tendency to under-estimate the potential grades that might be achieved by pupils from less wealthy families.
Black, Asian and other ethnic minority pupils, and pupils with disabilities, could also be unfairly downgraded.
It’s not a knock on anyone in the education profession – but many of us tend to make assumptions about people, even if we don’t know we’re doing it.
What’s more, grades will be estimated partly on what pupils in the same school have achieved in the past.
But what if a school has improved in the past 12 months – or you just happen to be a high flier? Then there’s the appeals system, which will become more important than ever before this year.
Some ambitious parents – perhaps those who got good A-levels and went to university themselves – will be more likely to appeal disappointing grades than others.
There’s the option to “resit” exams (actually sitting them for the first time) in the Autumn.
But MPS are demanding Ofqual determine “whether there is evidence that groups such as BAME [black and minority ethnic] pupils, pupils with special educational needs, children looked after, and free school meal eligible pupils have been systematically disadvantaged by calculated grades.”
As the MPS say, “pupils will carry these qualifications with them for their entire lives”.
Their calculated grades must be accurate.