A-level fiasco reflects the Government’s wider neglect of young people

SIR – I feel profoundly moved by the plight of those young people disappointed by the low grades they have unexpectedly been given, and their consequent heartbreak over missing out on the course and university of their choice.

Over the past five months they have been deprived of so much: their education, the companionship of their peers, the opportunity to experiment and take risks – all vital experiences on the path to adulthood.

This situation has had a far greater impact on young people whose families do not necessarily have the means – financial, intellectual or organisational – to support them. And all young people must feel let down by this Government.

I hope that educational bodies will do everything they can to help this cohort. Janet Havercroft Oxford

SIR – Boris Johnson claims that the A-level algorithm is the fairest system.

Yet the admissions tutor at the university I can’t now join – having had my predicted grades of ABB reduced to CCD – says I have been “grievously impacted by the injustice of the way grades have been calculated”.

Can the Prime Minister explain to me how the fairest system is one in which an algorithm, in the name of normalising my school’s performance, ruins my grades without any regard for me, my abilities or my wellbeing? Hannah Pamplin Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

SIR – As a former teacher, I know how easy it is for the grading of pupils’ work to become subjective.

An examiner marking A-levels will have no built-in opinions about individual students, and the marking will consequently be fairer. But that is not the case with predicted grades.

The A-level algorithm was not perfect, but at least it was objective. It is true that there have been disappointments among this year’s cohort, but there have been many successes, too. Most students will be moving on to higher education at the university of their choice.

There has been a rush to declare the results a catastrophe. In fact they are very similar to those of previous years, if not better. David Kidd Petersfield, Hampshire

SIR – Why is there no discussion of the daft decision to cancel exams in the first place?

They could easily have gone ahead in the empty halls of closed schools. It felt like the wrong decision at the time and so it has proved.

We need to be generous to this year’s school-leavers. None of this was their fault. David Goodwin Lewes, East Sussex

SIR – Gavin Williamson: soft on teachers’ unions, tough on pupils. Anne Cattermull

London SW17