Boris Johnson news – live: Government U-turns on A-level results and will revert to predicted grades amid outrage over exams chaos
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The government has u-turned on its decision to award grades to A-level and GCSE students based on an algorithm which downgraded pupils from underperforming schools - instead allowing predicted grades allocated by teachers to stand.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson apologised to students and parents affected by "significant inconsistencies" with the grading process, adding "I am sorry for the distress this has caused young people and their parents but hope this announcement will now provide the certainty and reassurance they deserve"'
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the government had been caught in a "screeching u-turn", writing on Twitter: "the Tories’ handling of this situation has been a complete fiasco."
It comes after Northern Ireland’s executive said GCSE students’ grades would be decided using teachers’ assessments, while the Welsh government said both GCSE and A-level students will have grades decided by their teachers.
Blair: ‘Bio-IDs’ will be needed for international travel to get back to normal
Former PM Tony Blair added that he does not see how international travel can resume again without “regular testing” – and that individuals should have bio-IDs to present the coronavirus tests they have had.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If you’re not able to test significantly when you’re trying to get large numbers of people back into a normal routine, then I think you’re going to be enormously inhibited at how you handle the disease. And it’s not so difficult to do.”
The former Labour prime minister added: “We suggest how you might boost and accelerate the development of these on-the-spot antigen tests and then we say at a certain stage you want to move to a ... every person has, as it were, a record of what tests they’ve had, if you like a kind of bio-ID which allows them then to present, for example, when you’re travelling - I just don’t see how you get international travel going again unless you’ve got regular testing.”
He called on the government to roll out mass testing before the end of 2020. “If 70% of the cases are asymptomatic, you are not testing those people, they are all false negatives at the moment. The people out there who have got the disease but have got no symptoms yet can still spread the disease are in effect a false negative.
“So, yes, it is true that you will miss some people ... In every single aspect of this, once you realise you’re not going to eradicate the disease, you’re going to have to contain it and live with it at least until a vaccine comes, then you’ve just got to have a sensible risk calculus in every area.”
Independent SAGE scientists condemn ‘plan to scrap PHE’
Reports over the weekend indicate health secretary Matt Hancock is ready to scrap Public Health England, and set up a new replacement body as soon as September.
The Independent SAGE group of scientists – highly critical of the government’s handling of the pandemic – has said it’s a bad idea.
The group said this morning that it “does not agree with the course the government appears to be taking”, adding that the move could “destroy the confidence of public health staff”.
Professor Gabriel Scally said: “The government needs to be aware of the risks involved in undertaking major organisational restructuring in the midst of this public health crisis.”
‘Utterly untenable’ for Tory government to deny IndyRef 2 says Sturgeon
Next year’s Holyrood election will be the most important in Scotland’s history, according to first minister Nicola Sturgeon.
With the SNP fighting to win a record fourth term in power, she said voters will be presented with a “stark choice” between her party and the “utterly regressive” Conservatives in the May 2021 ballot.
She also made clear the SNP manifesto for the election will include a commitment to hold a second Scottish independence referendum and insisted it will be “utterly untenable and unsustainable” for the Tory government at Westminster to deny such a vote in the event of an SNP victory.
Her comments come after opinion polls suggested the SNP could be on course for an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament - and that a majority of Scots now favour independence.
Writing in Holyrood Magazine’s 2020 annual review, the first minister said she will “relish the chance to return to politics as normal once circumstances allow, especially as we look ahead to next year’s election”.
First minister Nicola Sturgeon (Reuters)
Government ‘has not made ferry industry aware’ of quarantine rules
Britain’s ferry firms say they have not been told of a government ruling that UK-bound travellers lose quarantine exemption if they sail back from France or the Netherlands.
Both countries were removed from the list of exempt nations on Saturday.
British holidaymakers driving back from countries such as Germany, Switzerland and Italy can avoid the need to self-isolate for 14 days if they drive straight through a “high-risk” country such as France, Belgium or the Netherlands.
Some motorists had hoped that driving straight through from Germany and boarding a ferry at a French or Dutch port immediately would save them having to self-isolate on return to the UK.
But the Department for Transport (DfT) has told The Independent that because the occupants of a car must leave the vehicle before sailing – for safety reasons – they are deemed to have mixed with others while the ship is tied up in a French or Dutch port.
Our travel correspondent Simon Calder has the details:
Government hails ‘great start’ in recruiting for future vaccine trials
More than 100,000 people have volunteered for future coronavirus vaccine trials in the UK.
Researchers have urged people to keep signing up – especially if they are over the age of 65, or from a black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) background.
The government has said it aims to get as many people as possible signed up to the NHS Covid-19 Vaccine Research Registry by October, so large-scale vaccine trials can begin.
Kate Bingham, the chair of the government’s vaccine taskforce, said it was a “great start”.
“We need many more people from many different backgrounds that we can call on for future studies if we are to find a vaccine quickly to protect those who need it against coronavirus,” she said.
Tories turn on government over A-levels fiasco
Sir Robert Syms, Poole MP, said he would be “happy” for the algorithm that moderates teachers grades to be scrapped – and GCSE grades to be awarded on teachers’ assessments alone. “I just think the government haven’t looked at the whole picture here,” he told Times Radio earlier.
He also said: “People voted for Boris to run the country, not an algorithm … In Scotland they got themselves in a hole then got out. We seem to have gone headfirst in and are still digging.”
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the algorithm-awarded A-level grades should be abandoned, with teacher assessments or mocks used instead.
“No algorithm is going to sort our problem out, it’s a human issue,” he told LBC Radio.
Former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson also said: “This is not just one of these bubble issues. This is something that cuts through everything. MPs should be telling the chief whip, including conservative MPs, that this will absolutely be one of the things that, even people who don’t even pay attention to politics, will be all over because this is their child’s future.”
Tory MP Stephen Hammond, meanwhile, echoed former education secretary Lord Baker and suggested that pushing back the GSCE results – due this Thursday – “probably is the right thing to do”.
U-turn on A-levels ‘absolutely inevitable’ says former Ofsted chief
Sir Michael Wilshaw said the government should now accept teacher-predicted grades to end confusion over A-level results. The former head of Ofsted told the BBC: “Well, I think it is inevitable, absolutely inevitable.”
He added: “Of course we’re all worried about standardisation, of course we’re all worried that there shouldn’t be rampant grade inflation, but, look, our poor children, the great majority of children have suffered hugely over the last six months, particularly poor youngsters, and if we err on the side of generosity now, no-one will blame the government for that and no-one will blame Ofqual for that.
“This is an exceptional year. So we should follow the Northern Ireland example and the Scottish example and say that we will accept the estimated grades.”
18 Tory MPs ‘concerned’ by A-level grading
The backlash keeps on building. At least 18 Tory MPs have raised concerns about the A-levels moderated grading (including four influential select committee chairs), according to The Times.
MP Oliver Heald said: “It seems that the Ofqual algorithm is a blunt instrument and has adversely affected schools and colleges with large 6th forms. I am pressing the government to urgently make changes to the system.”
Government U-turn on the way?
Reports suggest the government is planning to make an announcement on the exam results mess later today at 4pm.
‘Something fundamentally wrong,’ says Tory MP
And another Tory MP joins the chorus of criticism. Former minister Jake Berry said on Facebook he “would have liked to have seen more weight given to the predicted grades made by teachers”.
He said he had written a letter to Gavin Williamson highlighting the case of a school in his Rossendale and Darwen constituency, noting “some students will have been incredibly disappointed with their results and the way they have been awarded”.
The letter told Williamson: “All of the indicators that the school are providing me with suggest that there is something fundamentally wrong with the standardisation model at the centre level.”
Berry added: “From a personal point of view, I would have liked to have seen more weight given to the predicted grades made by teachers … I believe this would be a more than acceptable predictor of how well a student could have performed in an exam setting.”
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