A-level results day: Boris Johnson insists results are ‘robust’ despite nearly 40% of marks downgraded with biggest reductions among disadvantaged students
Concerns over use of mock results spark backlash from teachers, students and ministers
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Hundreds of thousands of school leavers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are receiving their A-level results, as ministers face pressure over a last-minute change to allow students to choose their mock exam results if they are unhappy with their grades.
Exams this summer were cancelled due to the pandemic and students will receive estimated grades to help them progress into university, work or training.
But the use of mock grades has drawn criticism from teachers, students and ministers, who warned the change contained “massive inconsistencies” and “beggars belief”.
Labour leader Keir Starmer hit out at the eleventh hour changes, calling it “shambolic”.
“This is a complete fiasco. It was obvious this was going to be difficult but it’s been weeks or months in the coming,” he said, noting the fallout last week in Scotland where grades were downgraded for students from more deprived areas.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson has insisted the system is fair and “robust”.
Student accuses exam boards of ‘playing around with people's futures’ after receiving downgraded results
Ellie French, an A-level student from Basildon, has expressed her anger and confusion after receiving downgraded results today and being rejected from her chosen university course.
Ellie, 18, was hoping to study history at Nottingham. Despite expecting an A in history, she received a C grade, meaning although she received A grades in English and politics, she was turned down and will now go through clearing.
She told PA that in her previous mocks, she “never got lower than a B” for the subject.
“My school sent me my results and they also put the teacher assessed and final mock grade on it as well as our final grade, and for me history read: Final mock grade: A, teacher assessment: A, final grade: C.”
The student from Appleton School in Benfleet intends to appeal the grade and has no idea why she had been given a C.
“It seems like they just randomly pick and choose who can go up and who can go down in the grade, it doesn’t really make sense.
“I’m just really annoyed and confused. If I did the exam I would have got the grades I was meant to get. It just feels so stupid. I feel like they don’t really know what they’re doing.
“They’ve really messed it up. I blame the exam boards and I think they’re just playing around with people’s futures.”
Parents furious at downgraded results
A number of parents have taken to Twitter to express their fury at their children’s downgraded A-level results, calling Gavin Williamson and Boris Johnson “an utter disgrace”.
Nearly 40 per cent of results were downgraded as ministers face backlash for marking system, after summer exams were cancelled due to Covid-19.
Government ‘disrespecting teachers and young people’ as education secretary defends grading system
Britain's Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is seen at Downing Street in London (Reuters)
An apology to students and teachers was demanded of Gavin Williamson after he was accused of “disrespecting” and “not trusting teachers” following today’s release of A-level results.
The education secretary was asked on ITV’s This Morning programme to justify the system by a headteacher on the show, who said it was not a “level-playing field across the UK” after 40 per cent of pupils’ marks were downgraded, he replied: “We do recognise that whatever system we put in place – the best system is to have a system where people are having exams.
“We weren’t as a result of Covid in a position to do that and Ofqual consulted widely on this extensively – the largest consultation they’ve ever had.
“As a father myself, as someone who wants the absolute best for all children right across the country it’s about trying to put as much fairness into the system as possible.”
When asked if government simply didn’t trust the teachers’ predicted grades, he replied: “Well the reason we had to put a set of checks and balances in place because you can get quite considerable inconsistencies across the country.”
But the teacher replied: “Is this the right time for checks and balances when you really don’t know what they are? Come on, they’ve been through enough, let them move on. We as professionals have given those grades in good faith – and we’ve followed the consultation to a tee.”
Evidently frustrated with Mr Williamson’s responses, Emma Kenny, the programme’s resident psychologist, asked: “How about sorry?”
She later added: “I’m sorry - that’s not trusting teachers. These people are well trained. You are disrespecting teachers and young people.”
Ucas Track website ‘seven times’ busier than last year
Responding to earlier reports of the Ucas website crashing as students tried to get their A-level results online, Ucas said there was a “surge in demand for our website, seven times higher than at the same point last year”.
It told The Independent: “We immediately responded and increased our capacity and the service returned to normal within thirty minutes.
“We apologise for the frustration this has caused, and we are here to help students throughout the day.”
Proportion of students with reductions in A-level grades biggest among more deprived
Exams watchdog Ofqual has said the biggest reduction in the proportion of students awarded A-level grades of C and above after moderation was recorded within those from underprivileged backgrounds.
Around 85.0 per cent of candidates classes as having a “low” socio-economic status had been predicted to achieve a C and above by their schools.
But this fell to 74.6 per cent after final grades were calculated under the new moderation process, a drop of 10.4 percentage points.
In contrast, the proportion of students from “high” socio-economic status awarded a C and above fell by 8.3 percentage points during the process, from 89.3 per cent to 81.0 per cent.
Ofqual released a technical analysis to accompany the release of A-level results in England, and said there was no evidence that “bias” was present in the moderation system.
It said differences between the change in predicted and final results was “relatively similar” across all socio-economic groups.
It highlighted that the analysis did not take into account the variation in generosity from schools when predicted grades were submitted, and noted that research suggested teachers had a tendency to “overestimate to a greater extent the grades of socio-economically disadvantaged students”.
‘Shambolic mess’: Education experts offer sympathy for students struggling with A-level results
A student nervously waits to discover her university options after receiving her A level results at City Academy Hackney (Getty)
Education experts have offered sympathy to students whose results were unsatisfactory as a result of the system put in place after summer exams were cancelled this year.
Laura Rettie, vice president of Global Communications at education consultancy, Studee, said a number of parents and students are “very angry and rightly so” as A-level results came out today.
“Regardless of the last minute changes by the government, huge numbers of students are still being downgraded due to an algorithm, rather than putting trust in the teachers up and down the country who tirelessly work to help their students achieve,” she said.
Widespread confusion and knocked confidence among students might leave them feeling as though “whatever grade they get is a bit meaningless”.
Sol Shlagman, co-founder of student employment Stint, added: “For many school leavers, the choice now will be between a bleak jobs market already under pressure or clearing at a time when learning has already been severely disrupted.
“The future is really uncertain for young people, and the government needs to do more or else it will be guilty of abandoning this entire generation.”
Ms Rettie said the process of clearing this year will likely be “chaotic” as university staff scrambled to absorb new information and prepare.
“My deepest sympathy goes out to the class of 2020 - I sincerely hope the students of the year of the pandemic won’t be discredited for years to come.
“After dedicating a significant chunk of their lives to their studies, they deserved so much more than this shambolic mess,” she added.
Huge variations between grades predicted by teachers and actual grades awarded, says SFCA
The Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) said principals have found huge variations between A-level exam grades predicted by teachers and the actual grades awarded to students today.
Bill Watkin, chief executive of the SFCA, said the government’s model for calculating grades this year was “flawed and unreliable”.
His comment comes amid anger over the results, which saw nearly 40 per cent of results downgraded and thousands of students being disappointed.
Mr Watkin said: A fundamental objective of the process was to ensure year-on-year comparability in exam results - the very clear evidence from our members is that the standardisation model has utterly failed to achieve this.”
The association conducted a snap poll of 100 members, which found more than a third of principals saw their overall exam results drop below their historic performance.
Mr Watkin added: “The only way the Government can rescue this situation, and ensure that thousands of students are not disadvantaged, is to base results entirely on centre-assessed grades - the predictions made by teachers.
“This is the only alternative to what has proved to be a failed experiment by the Government to develop a fair process of standardisation.”
Labour: Educational disadvantage ‘worsened’ under Tory government
Labour MP and shadow exchequer secretary to the Treasury, Wes Streeting, has tweeted: “Under the Tories, the story of educational disadvantage in our country has worsened. Today, it is well and truly baked in.
“As someone from a poor family in a poor postcode I dread to think what would have happened to my grades if I'd been victim to this flawed system.”
School head accuses Gavin Williamson of ignoring professional judgment of teachers
Gavin Williamson has been accused by a school head of ignoring the professional judgment of teachers over their students' A-level results.
The education secretary was confronted by Christine Cunniffe, the principal of LVS Ascot, during an uncomfortable appearance on ITV's This Morning.
Ms Cunniffe said she had seen some of her top students downgraded by two grades as a result of the system put in place by the government for moderating exam results in England.
She urged the education secretary to follow the example of Scotland and abandon the system, saying students had "been through enough".
However, Mr Williamson said that without "checks and balances" to ensure consistency across the country, some schools would simply have assessed all their pupils as achieving the top grades.
Ms Cunniffe said there was no longer a "level playing field" across the UK and demanded to know how Mr Williamson could justify the system for awarding results after the Covid-19 pandemic meant actual exams had to be cancelled.
She said she was "quite incensed" that some students would not now be able to go to the university of their choice.
"I have seen some of our students go down two grades where they are at the top of the school. So there are inconsistencies," she said.
"Is this really the right time for checks and balances when we don't know what they are? They have been through enough, let them move on.
"We as professionals have given those grades in good faith, been very robust, and we have followed the consultation to a tee."
Mr Williamson said the government had put in a "robust" appeals system for those students who were unhappy with their results but that it was essential to ensure there was consistency across the country.
"As a father myself, as someone who always does the absolute best for all the children right across the country, it is about trying to put as much fairness into the system as possible," he said.
"If you effectively rip up a whole book and say you are not having standards, not having the same sort of consistency, you will have had some schools who would have literally put in every child as either an A or an A* or a B."
‘Real tragedies’: BBC correspondent highlights plight of students with downgraded results
Lewis Goodall, policy editor at the BBC, said he was told of an “exceptional” pupil in a low-performing school who was rejected from Cambridge University after her results were downgraded.
“No system was ever going to be completely fair but hearing so many real tragedies this morning,” he said.
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