Appeals will be free but there’ll be ‘no U-turn’ on grading system, says Gavin Williamson
Schools in England will be able to appeal against A-level and GCSE grades free of charge, according to education secretary Gavin Williamson.
His announcement came amid further criticism of the government’s handling of the exams system, after thousands of pupils in England had their results downgraded.
“Deluge” of appeals
Williamson told the Times:
I do not want a youngster to feel they are in a situation where there is a strong and legitimate case for grounds for appeal, but an appeal is not made on grounds of cost.
That would be a real, shocking injustice.
You will have obviously a large number of appeals. But I would rather have a strong, robust fair appeals process that makes sure that youngsters get the grades that they deserve as against being in a situation where there is an injustice that carries on.
But he again said there would be “no U-turn” on the grading system, claiming this would “severely erode” the value of qualifications and lead to grade inflation.
Read on...
Making appeals free may not be enough, as shadow education secretary Kate Green has warned there could be a “deluge” of appeals from students unhappy with their A-level results. She said it may prove impossible to get them all processed in time for students to take up their university places.
We have seen concerns that appeals to A level results could lead to grades going down.
We can reassure students that, as there is grade protection this year, no grades will go down as a result of an appeal.
— Ofqual (@ofqual) August 13, 2020
Protests and internal criticism
Protesters gathered outside Downing Street on Friday 14 August chanting for Williamson to be sacked, a call echoed by some opposition MPs. But prime minister Boris Johnson is backing Williamson. He has insisted that he has confidence in Williamson and described the system as “robust”.
Yet some conservative MPs have voiced their concerns about the process used by exam regulator Ofqual to moderate A-level results. Robert Syms suggested the Westminster government may have to follow Scotland’s lead if the appeals procedure failed to deal with the issues. The SNP-led administration at Holyrood opted to allow results estimated by teachers to be accepted.
Robert Halfon, the Conservative chairman of the Commons Education Committee, earlier expressed concern that Ofqual’s model to moderate A-level results penalised disadvantaged students. He called on the regulator to publish details of the algorithm it used to make its calculations. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s The World At One programme, he said:
I am worried about it because some figures suggest that disadvantaged students have been penalised again.
I am also worried about further education colleges, because they have been improving in recent years and yet they seem also to have suffered under this grading system.
If the model has penalised disadvantaged groups this is very serious and if it has disadvantaged colleges that has to be looked at. Ofqual will have to adjust the grades.
Opposition response
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said he’s considering a legal challenge against Ofqual over the “unfair” A-level results process, given the impact on pupils in his region.
Ofqual has said that a “rare few centres” put in “implausibly high judgments”, and said that an appeals process is in place to correct any mistakes.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Keir Starmer tweeted:
The unprecedented and chaotic circumstances created by the UK Government’s mishandling of education during recent months mean that a return to teacher assessments is now the best option available.
No young person should be at a detriment due to Government incompetence.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) August 14, 2020
Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Layla Moran called for Williamson to step down from his role with immediate effect. She said:
Gavin Williamson is an education secretary out of his depth and out of excuses. He must take responsibility for his mistakes and step down with immediate effect.
Our young people and our country cannot afford these blunders to continue into September, ahead of a potential second wave.
We know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support
The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.
The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.
So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.
-
Show Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to leave a comment.Join the conversationPlease read our comment moderation policy here.
OFQUAL and WJEC invented all this nonsense and algorith to keep them busy for the past 5 months. They’ve had no exams to organise and no exam marks to correlate, so they’ve needed something to avoid furloughing and redundancies.
The students affected are individuals whose lives will be put in turmoil by this – they’re not numbers in a computer algorithm.
All those involved should apologise and resign.
This absurd mathematical algorithm designed with its seemingly despicable elitist intent to differentiate ‘the good from the bad’ makes of public school students the elite winners who keep on winning. And, this time they’ve won even more glittering top-of-the-pile plaudits with exam outcomes thanks to a Tory algorithm. While, state school students, where even if many through socio-economic circumstance are the sink estate and social-housing losers as usual through no fault of their own, have lost even more – in some instances with intolerable downgrading of their exam results. This time around during added horrendous Covid times witnesses state school’s having their downgraded results justified by ‘outrageous mathematics’ – being an algorithm that has to have been dreamed up, surely, by some grey grubby nondescript ‘mathematical genius’ of a government department stooge who’s ‘good at numbers’? There couldn’t be a more elitist mathematical model rubber-stamping exam outcomes that has separated out with stark algorithmic indifferent robotic means the disparity between our UK society’s ‘young haves’ and ‘young have nots’.