Government U-turn on A-Level and GCSE results welcomed

After coming under increasing pressure from MPs, including Winchester’s Steve Brine, over the unfair situations facing thousands of students, the changes have been confirmed by exam regulator Ofqual.

The body said that all A-Level and GCSE pupils in England will now be awarded the grades they have been given in their teacher assessments.

Ofqual Chair Roger Taylor made the announcement and apologised for the "real anguish" experienced by pupils.

This means that a controversial algorithm that was used to calculate last week's A-Levels has been scrapped and will also not be used to re-grade GCSE results this Thursday.

The change has been welcomed locally by Winchester councillors.

Member of Hampshire County Council's education advisory panel Councillor Jackie Porter said: "Gavin Williamson has made a U-turn (perhaps it's a double U-turn?) and that's good news for the young people who were failed by the first system. Now, perhaps he should go before he changes his mind again.

"I hope that the results can be revised in time so that young people don't miss out on the next step on their ladder to a career or job prospect.

"This Government must really think hard about the effect a few misplaced decisions can have on people's lives. Thank goodness the U-turn has happened. Now they must start planning for the class of 2021.

"Possibly the bright light of this issue is that this problem affected MP's family members: is that why it has been changed again?"

City councillor Hannah Williams, who teaches at Peter Symonds, added: "This must be a bittersweet day for those who now have the grades, but have lost places at university."

Speaking earlier today when asked about report in The Guardian that the Government was going to abandon the algorithm, Steve Brine said: “That would pull the rug from under the majority of 60 per cent who have got what was predicted and got university places out of it.

“The issue of grade inflation is the wrong answer to the wrong question. This has been an extraordinary year. 2020 will be compared to none. 2021 will be compared to 2019. We should go back to the teachers. There’s a view that they have somehow gone rogue and bumped up the grades. It is not the case and does teachers a huge disservice.”

Mr Brine said that Education Secretary Gavin Williamson must stay in the position to "put this right". 

Joint Branch Secretary of Hampshire National Education Union (NEU) Karen Williams said: "NEU welcomes the U-turn, towards what we have been recommending all along:  teacher assessment by professionals who know their pupils, rather than a potentially discriminatory algorithm which awarded grades based on historic, non-personal data.

"Students and their teachers have endured days of completely unnecessary stress and worry. For many students, this announcement will generate further uncertainty if they have been rejected from their first-choice course, and university, on the basis of the inaccurate and unjust Ofqual awarding process.  Young people have suffered enough. Gavin Williamson should now announce that the cap on university places is lifted, so that more young people, who have worked so hard for their A-Levels, can continue their studies and fulfil their potential. 

"We need an absolute assurance to next year's GCSE and A-Level students that this cannot and will not happen again.

"Finally, and most importantly, we must congratulate our young people for their achievements in this most difficult and unsettling of years, and thank their teachers for all they have done for them under extremely challenging circumstances."

The system had been heavily criticised for unfairly downgrading the results of many students based on unfair factors - such as how their school had performed historically.

In a statement chair of Ofqual Mr Taylor said: “We understand this has been a distressing time for students, who were awarded exam results last week for exams they never took. The pandemic has created circumstances no one could have ever imagined or wished for. We want to now take steps to remove as much stress and uncertainty for young people as possible - and to free up heads and teachers to work towards the important task of getting all schools open in two weeks.”

He added that there was there was “no easy solution” to the problem of awarding exam results when no exams have taken place.