Government announces exam grades to be lower next year

‘It would not be right for grading standards caused by highly unusual circumstances to become baked into the system,’ union boss says

Exam grades are to be lower next year under efforts to bring down marks from Covid pandemic highs, the government has announced.

It will mark a step back to “normality” after GCSE and A-level grades shot up over the past three years, according to the Department for Education and England’s exam regulator.

Ofqual had previously said it wanted to return to pre-pandemic grading from next year and those plans were confirmed on Thursday.

A return to tougher grade boundaries would reflect the fact schools remained open to all pupils over the past year unlike others during the Covid pandemic, according to the government.

Ofqual said it expected to see overall results next year “much closer” to those in pre-pandemic years as a result of the plans.

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The exam regulator said there would still be some protections in place to ensure this cohort would not be disadvantaged. This is because they would have still experienced disruption from Covid, albeit not while studying for their exams.

Examiners will be looking at pre-pandemic grades and prior attainment when setting grade boundaries for 2023, instead of only looking at the assessments produced by the current cohort.

“That means the 2023 cohort will be protected in grading terms if their exam performance is a little lower than before the pandemic,” Dr Jo Saxton, the head of Ofqual, said.

The Association for School and College Leaders welcomed the decision for grading next year.

“Returning grading standards to pre-pandemic standards with a safety net to ensure that grades do not fall lower is a sensible balance between stepping back to normality while ensuring that students affected by Covid disruption are not detrimentally affected,” its leader, Geoff Barton, said.

“The pandemic caused a situation in which exams were not held for two years and were replaced with a different system of assessment that understandably resulted in different grades from normal.”

He added: “It would not be right for grading standards caused by highly unusual circumstances to become baked into the system so we do need to return to normality.”

Natalie Perera from the Education Policy Institute think tank said: “Returning to the 2019 grade distribution seems to be the most pragmatic approach. As we said last year, there is no perfect option given the circumstances.”

A staggered approach to tackling grade inflation seen during the Covid pandemic started with GCSE and A-level grades this year, which fell from an all-time high reached the year before.

A-level grades were generally higher than pre-pandemic levels this year (PA)

Marks were still higher overall than pre-pandemic levels.

Kit Malthouse, the education secretary, said: “Students working towards their qualifications next year expect fairness in exams and grading arrangements, which is why we are transitioning back to pre-pandemic normality.”