Williamson shifts blame on to exam watchdog after grades climbdown
Education Secretary faces calls for his resignation after reversing stance on A-level assessments and apologising to students
GAVIN WILLIAMSON blamed the exam regulator for the A-level results chaos, as he announced a climbdown on predicted grades following a backlash from Tory MPS.
The Education Secretary apologised for the fiasco, in which close to 40 per cent of school leavers were marked down by an algorithm, and said that all A-level and GCSE pupils would now be given their teachers’ predicted grades.
His announcement came after 24 hours of mounting pressure from Tory backbenchers, who claimed Mr Williamson had lost the confidence of teachers and should resign.
Last night, Mr Williamson, who on Saturday had insisted there would be “no U-turn, no change”, refused to comment when asked if he had offered to resign, but appeared to signal that he held the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) responsible for the furore. He said he had been “constantly reassured” by senior Ofqual officials that the algorithm was fair, as he refused to give his backing to Sally Collier, its chief regulator.
“At every stage we have always put challenges to Ofqual in terms of the development of the process that they have got,” Mr Williamson said. “We have always had consistent reassurance about the fact that it was a fair and robust system that they put in place.”
He said that after monitoring events in Scotland – where it emerged that pupils from deprived backgrounds were more likely to be downgraded than their peers from more affluent families, leading the Scottish Government to abandon the grading system – he sought extra clarification from Ofqual about the algorithm.
“When we saw what happened in Scotland, we had been given reassurance that there were sufficient differences within the algorithm and the work that Ofqual had done that was different to the Scottish Qualification Authority,” he said, adding that at the time he was advised by the watchdog that the “disparity and unfairness” that the Scottish algorithm gave rise to “wasn’t something that was being repeated within the English system”.
The about-turn came after a day of criticism from Tory MPS who called for a climbdown, with at least three former ministers writing to Nick Gibb, the education minister, asking him to scrap the algorithm. It also followed a weekend of protests at Downing Street and in Hyde Park, where students urged the Education Secretary to resign.
With the A-level fiasco growing, further chaos loomed with GCSE results set to be announced on Thursday.
Mr Williamson’s announcement included changes to university admissions, with institutions able to admit as many students as they have space for. Students were also assured the aboutturn would not mean they were marked down. If their predicted grade was lower than the algorithm result they would receive the higher mark.
Government sources told The Daily Telegraph that one factor behind the reversal was concern that schools would fail to open on time in September if teachers were forced to spend the rest of the month navigating a complicated appeals system.
On Saturday, Ofqual issued guidance on how students could appeal, only for it to be pulled hours later amid concern that it was at odds with government policy. On Sunday, the Department for Education insisted Ofqual was continuing “to consider how to best deliver the appeals process to give schools and pupils the clarity they need”.
Ofqual sources claimed that following an emergency board meeting on Sunday, they decided the algorithm was causing the public to lose confidence in qualifications, and urged the Education Secretary to scrap it.
Mr Williamson claimed he had not seen Ofqual’s algorithm until the weekend, despite the regulator publishing it last Thursday.
On Saturday, he had refused calls for a climbdown over the grading system, which took into account the school’s past performance as well as the prior
attainment of the current year group. But over the next 48 hours a succession of Tories, including ministers, broke ranks to call for the algorithm to go.
Robert Halfon, the education select committee chairman and a former education minister, led the charge, saying 2020 had been a “disastrous” year for students. He said that unless the appeal system could be done fairly, “there will be sadly no option but just to adopt the Scottish position in allowing teachers’ predicted grades to stand”.
Sir Edward Leigh said yesterday he had asked Mr Gibb to “reconsider” the
Government’s approach and “allow teachers’ assessments to be used when there is clear injustice”.
Meanwhile, Sir Oliver Heald called on ministers to rectify results where pupils “feel an injustice has been done”.
He added: “Although teachers’ assessments alone can lead to grade inflation, it seems that the Ofqual algorithm is a blunt instrument and has adversely affected schools and colleges with large sixth forms.”
Stephen Hammond gave Ofqual an ultimatum, saying they had until 5pm today to set out clearly the process for A-level students to appeal, branding the situation “a shambles”. “This is not the actions of a body that seems to know what it is doing,” he added.
Asked if Mr Williamson should resign, he said: “Really what I am interested in now is getting this right for the thousands of people.”
It came as a Yougov snap poll revealed that the public felt Mr Williamson should resign by two to one. The poll found that 75 per cent of the country said the Government had handled pupils’ exam results badly, with just 6 per cent saying it was handled well.
Meanwhile, 40 per cent said Mr Williamson should resign compared with 21 per cent who said he should remain as Education Secretary, with 39 per cent saying they didn’t know.
Mr Williamson did not answer when asked whether he had confidence in the head of Ofqual, merely saying that he was “working closely” with her.
One Whitehall source said: “At various points, assurances were given by Ofqual that the algorithm was in good shape and that has now turned out not to be the case. After it came out, it became apparent this weekend that there were serious problems with it. The question is why those were not uncovered in advance.”
‘Assurances were given that the algorithm was in good shape and that has now turned out not to be the case’