Pupils face exam chaos ‘life sentence’
Head teachers raise concern over Covid-19 grading system as children are denied right of appeal
PUPILS face being handed a “life sentence” if they are not allowed to appeal incorrect grades in their GCSE or Alevel exams, it is warned today.
The majority of teenagers in England will next week receive grades that have been calculated using a statistical model after coronavirus interrupted exam season.
However, the exam regulator has decreed that appeals will only be allowed on technical grounds and not simply if a student believes they have been awarded an unfair grade.
Fears are growing that next week’s results day could descend into chaos with thousands of pupils handed questionable results. One source familiar with the predicted grades model said that “all hell would break loose”. Leading head teachers are now urging Ofqual to overhaul the system amid concerns it could punish a generation of teenagers.
Dr Martin Stephen, the former High Master of St Paul’s Boys’ School in London, said that the current results system was tantamount to “imposing a life sentence on children, with no effective right of appeal”.
Ian Power, the general secretary of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, warned that allowing students the right to appeal against their grades this summer was a matter of “natural justice” and warned that exam boards could face a wave of legal challenges unless the rules were changed.
Earlier this week in Scotland, exam results day was labelled a “shambles” after close to 125,000 predicted grades were downgraded by the Scottish Qualifications Authority.
The Scottish and English regulators drew up statistical models to generate pupils’ grades after all public exams were cancelled. Both models take into account factors including data on a school’s historic grades in subjects.
A source told The Daily Telegraph that the statistical model being used to predict English exam results shared the same “basic principles” with the Scottish one.
But while pupils in Scotland are able to appeal against their results, English students are currently banned from doing so apart from on narrow technical grounds. Pupils who believe their GCSE or A-level marks are lower than what they could have achieved are only allowed to appeal by sitting a new set of exams in the autumn.
Last night, education chiefs heaped pressure on Ofqual to allow students a broader set of grounds on which they can appeal.
Mr Power said that appeals were the “biggest concern” about this year’s process for HMC, which represents the country’s most exclusive schools including Eton, Harrow and Winchester.
“Having the right to appeal a result is natural justice,” he said. “The appeals process this year is even more narrow than normal. Parents will take the action they feel they have to, and if that involves legal action that could happen. That is part of the frustration.”
Writing in today’s Telegraph, Dr Stephen explains that the current system works fairly “only for those schools whose performance has been static for three years”, adding that it is “grossly unfair to year groups who are unusually gifted”.
Appeals are only allowed by Ofqual if a school can prove that the process was not followed correctly, for example, if an error was made during the calculation process.
Robert Halfon MP, the Tory chairman of the education select committee, said that as things stand, students’ parents would need to enlist a lawyer to navigate the appeals process. “We currently have an appeals process that only serves the well-heeled and the sharp-elbowed. If you are not an upwardly mobile professional you don’t have a chance,” he said.
“It has got to change, it has to be a level playing field for all students. Everyone should have a chance at getting a fair grade.”
The exam regulator launched a consultation in June that proposed some additional grounds on which students could challenge results.
The consultation, which Ofqual is due to respond to this week, outlined plans that would allow students to appeal if they believed they were the victims of discrimination or bias.
Under the proposals, teenagers would be allowed to appeal to exam boards if they believed there was evidence of “serious malpractice” by their school.
Yesterday, Kate Green MP, the shadow education secretary, wrote to Gavin Williamson to demand answers over A-levels and GCSES, following the “disastrous”
“Ministers must urgently set out how they’ll ensure the results next week will not exacerbate existing inequalities, and what extra support they’ll give to students who feel they’ve been unfairly graded to navigate the appeals process,” she said.
An Ofqual spokesman said: “It is important that students understand their options, including the possibility of an appeal, if they do not receive the grade they expected.
“Students will be able to appeal, through their school or college, if they believe a mistake has been made or that something has gone wrong in their case.
“We are committed to helping students, and their families, understand the options available to them and will be publishing information on how appeals will operate this summer.”
‘We currently have an appeals process that only serves the well-heeled and the sharp-elbowed’
A TEACHING union has threatened to keep some schools closed in September as the Government admits it is powerless to compel them to open.
Dr Mary Bousted, joint head of the National Education Union, called for the decision on bringing all pupils back to be taken locally, despite government guidance, and warned that “many” schools would find reopening “impossible”.
The union boss, who opposed earlier plans to get children back before the summer, claimed that the Government wouldn’t “be able to carry out their threats” over enforcing a September return.
The comments have emerged as Nick Gibb, the schools minister, said that ministers cannot “decree” that schools open.
Pressed on whether schools should be the last to close in the event of a rise in infections, he said that “all children will be returning to school in September, including in those areas that are currently subject to a local lockdown – Manchester, Greater Manchester, Leicester, and so on – because it is important children are back in school.
“But you can’t decree this for every single case and it will depend on the circumstances of a local increase in the infection rate, and that is why it is being led by the director of public health in localities. But we want all children back in school.”
The NEU was the union most vocal in forcing a U-turn on previous government plans to open schools before the summer, describing it as a “win”.
In a recorded Zoom meeting, seen by The Daily Telegraph, Dr Bousted has now told members that they cannot “trust” the government guidance, and that they should look at local models for reopening.
She said: “The latest iteration of government guidance is so unworkable that you can’t trust it. Local authorities and schools should take the confidence to do what they can do and that will mean for many schools that they cannot have all children fully back in September.
“Now, the Government’s making threatening noises about that. But in the end, they won’t be able to carry out their threats.”
She said that it might be “simply impossible” to follow the guidance “and have all children back”, and said schools “should have the confidence to be looking at what is possible in your area and make those arrangements”.
The meeting of the NEU Councillors Network, a partnership between local councillors and the union, was held in the days after the Government issued guidance last month.
The guidance states that schools
‘The Government’s making threatening noises. But in the end, they won’t be able to carry out their threats’
should separate classes into bubbles, stagger break times, ensure extra hygiene measures are in place and engage with local test and trace.
Sources at the Department for Education said that getting all children back into the classroom was a “national priority”. One said: “There is absolutely no reason for schools to stay closed.
“The guidelines are in place for a safe return, the latest polls show 90 per cent of parents are in favour of schools going back in full, and Labour also support a full return of schools.”
Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, said: “Getting all children back into the classroom, full-time at the start of next month, is a national priority, as this is the best place for them to be.
“We have always been and will continue to be guided by the best scientific and medical advice, and our detailed guidance sets out protective measures for schools to implement ahead of a full return in September.”