Lancaster and Morecambe education union rep says government's A-level U-turn followed 'shameful episode which must never happen again'

The A-level results were hit with criticism when they were released last Thursday after being adjusted by a new government plan which saw numerous students receive grades well below their predicted or mock grades.

But ministers in England, Northern Ireland and Wales all decided on Monday - four days after the results were issued - to revert to teacher assessed grades rather than an algorithm designed to moderate them.

It followed an outcry after 40 per cent of A-level results were downgraded by exams regulator Ofqual, which used a formula based on schools' prior grades.

Students reacted by holding protests across the UK, calling the grading system unfair, classist and a threat to their future.

Sam Ud-din, Lancaster & Morecambe National Education Union (NEU) secretary said the change - brought in due to students missing a large chunk of their final year and their exams as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown - was "devastating" for many students.

And he said the government U-turn on Monday afternoon came after both students and teachers had endured days of "completely unnecessary stress and worry".

"On Monday, Gavin Williamson had, finally, done the right thing," he said. "The pity is that he did so only after having exhausted all other options.

"Students and their teachers endured days of completely unnecessary stress and worry. For many students, the announcement will still 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. They have few chances in the jobs market as the country faces rising unemployment and recession.

"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.

"One of many lessons for Government to learn from this sorry saga is to listen to the education profession. The Department for Education's determination to put all eggs in one basket through a single set of summer exams has come back to haunt them. It is very much a disaster of their own making.

"This is a shameful episode. It must never happen again. The U-turn in Scotland includes a long-term review of the assessment methods used to award qualifications, including the possibility of more coursework and systematic, moderated teacher assessment, and it is critical that the same occurs in England.

"We not only need a careful and systematic review, but an absolute assurance to next year's GCSE and A-level students that this cannot and will not happen again. Assessment across the board needs to be re-considered - at primary, secondary and tertiary levels."

Mr Ud-din yesterday slammed the government scheme, which had left students facing resits in the autumn or an anxious wait to see if they had gained a university place.

He said students' futures had been "governed by an algorithm".

"The politics of results season 2020 has drowned out the most important point - that students must be congratulated for their hard work and patience through a very difficult time for the whole nation," he said.

"Teachers, support staff and school and college leaders, have tried their best, during a time of great uncertainty, to support and help the young people they teach. They have been let down by a poor system and last-minute political decisions.

"Students have been knocked from pillar to post this year through no fault of their own. In Scotland, many pupils suffered a week of real anguish over lower grades than they expected, only for their centre assessed grades to be reinstated.

"Wales has the benefit of external exams (AS-levels) taken partway through the A-Level course to use as a backstop - unlike in England where the intermediate AS-level was in effect removed just a couple of years ago.

"Gavin Williamson has instead taken pre-emptive measures in England which only serve to show he has no confidence in, and cannot defend, the system he created during lockdown.

"Williamson's plan is a real insult to young people and their parents, who depend on a credible system which is supposed to help students on their way to a bright future.

"For those having to sit autumn exams, that future will now be postponed. For others, the competition for university places has been intensified due to different decisions being made in Scotland.

"And it remains to be seen quite how unfair the Government's plan will be for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

"Years of misconceived structures in the exams process have come back to haunt the Westminster Government.

"Students have been downgraded for reasons which to them will be unfair. So not only will the result be devastating, but many will discover it has nothing to do with their own performance and everything to do with the past attainment of their school, the location of that school and the type of school and the intention to have 'winners' and, as a direct consequence, 'losers' (rather than judging each and every student only on what they individually can achieve).

"Student prospects this year were governed by an algorithm, and the unfairness of that process has been fully exposed.

"Gavin Williamson's solution is no 'triple lock' but a menu of bad options. Teachers and pupils who know how mock exams differ even among subjects in the same school will wonder what counts as a 'valid' mock exam result, and the suggestion that this should be viewed as more reliable than teacher assessment is simply nonsensical. In other UK nations, pupils at least have the security of AS-level results giving a percentage of their final grade, rather than basing their entire future on a single set of exams.

"This is why the appeals process is more important than ever. It needs to be accessible to all and resourced properly to cope with demand, so that no further delays are created in the lives of young people.

"That it too was in total disarray over the weekend after the A-level results were first announced does not bode well for our children as we see the GCSE results announced this week.

"And, in the longer term, the A-level system that was once hailed by politicians as a gold standard needs to be radically overhauled."